Arch Miller sees it as a missed opportunity.
The Triple-A Portland Beavers, who are set to leave the city following the end of the 2010 season, could have soon belonged to Vancouver, Miller said.
But while a collection of complex financial and political issues surround the team’s impending departure, Miller believes Vancouver’s failure to land the Beavers — or any significant sports franchise in recent memory — is as simple as a called third strike.
“There’s just no governmental leadership in this metropolitan area that believes that sports are a part of our economic development,” said Miller, 72, a longtime Southwest Washington baseball advocate and chairman of the Vancouver-based International Air and Hospitality Academy.
“Clearly there’s a lack of political support. Our political leaders don’t have the ability or they’re not interested — I’m not sure which — to move these things forward,” Miller said. “There’s an old saying: Where there’s a will, there’s a way. But there’s no will here.”
Miller’s passion for baseball and the communal benefits of sports are contagious.
And they are shared by Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt.
Leavitt said he hopes Miller one day gets his long-desired baseball team. But where Miller wants action now, Leavitt and other Vancouver commerce and business representatives are taking a much more cautious route.
With the city struggling through a prolonged recession, everything from budget cuts to a continued effort to revitalize the waterfront and downtown have taken precedence over the attempt to add a sports franchise to Southwest Washington.
Leavitt said he is open to and excited about the idea of adding a new baseball, football or basketball team to Clark County — one that would help unite the community, pump money into the economy and shine a unique light on Vancouver.
But in the local world of sports, the time for change and innovation is in the future — not the present.
“Once we get through this economic downturn — and we all know that we will at some point — everything is on the table,” Leavitt said. “I think there is a passion in this community for our own identity when it comes to a minor-league sports team.”
Two cities
Less than 10 miles separate Vancouver from Portland. But in terms of regional and national sports recognition, they understandably are a world apart.
Led by the NBA’s Trail Blazers, Portland boasts four professional sports franchises. And while the city will lose the Beavers in September, Portland will gain another premier club with major name value when the Timbers join Major League Soccer in 2011.
Vancouver’s lone sports team is the Volcanoes, a semi-pro organization that competes in the International Basketball League.
Population explains the discrepancy. Portland ranked 30th in the nation with 566,141 persons in the 2009 United States Census Bureau reading. Vancouver’s populace of 165,809 ranked 143rd. Clark County’s total population was recorded at 435,600 in April based off state estimates.
Kim Capeloto, chief executive officer of the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce, said that large, sprawling community is a strong, proud and committed one — a collection of people that likely will embrace a new sports team if given the opportunity.
But like Leavitt, Capeloto said Southwest Washington is still in the process of sharpening its identity while digging out of a serious economic hole.
To Capeloto, there are many reasons why Vancouver has been unable to land a significant sports franchise in the past. But during the past three years, there has only been one: the recession.
“People have been very focused on running their own businesses up until just recently, without really looking further than the bunker that they’re in,” Capeloto said.
But the chamber of commerce officer said he can see signs of change. Moreover, long-planned improvements and additions that are now becoming common sights — increased development along the waterfront; the revitalization of downtown; large outdoor concerts and children playing near the fountains at Esther Short Park — could be the seeds that grow into a new sports image for Vancouver.
Capeloto’s vision and faith are backed by facts.
A late-inning effort by private investors to move the Beavers across the Columbia River and into the fourth-largest city in Washington eyed a possible new stadium in downtown Vancouver.
Meanwhile, a planned attempt by Volcanoes owner Bryan Hunter to partner with the city and build a 3,000- to 7,000-seat arena that would become the team’s home court and possibly host two other sports franchises mirrors an attempt during the early 2000s to build a sports complex near the waterfront.
“It’s part of that maturation,” Capeloto said. “You’ve got to be a mature community before you can start putting the extraneous in place.
“I think that any augmentation to the existing strong base will continue to help Southwest Washington, and in particular Vancouver, form a stronger identity as a great place to be, a great place to work and a great place to live. I absolutely agree that would help with the image and the branding.”
Multiple interests
Bonnie Moore is paid to contemplate and help support Vancouver’s business identity. But the director of business services for the Columbia River Economic Development Council and Southwest Washington Workforce Development Council acknowledged that she also has wondered about her new city’s sports identity.
Moore lived in Los Angeles and San Francisco before recently moving to Vancouver. In California, she noticed cities that based part of their image off well-branded and highly promoted sports franchises. Professional teams made the biggest mark, but colleges also played a large role in how people within an area identified themselves.
Since relocating, Moore has struggled to find the sports-related pulse of Vancouver. High school and community sports with limited outside interest drive the local conversation, while a mix of Blazers, Washington Huskies, Washington State Cougars, Oregon Ducks and Oregon State Beavers talk contributes to a culture that is often dramatic and interesting — but in no way Clark County specific.
The Ducks and Beavers belong to Oregon, while Washington’s most followed collegiate sports teams are at least 165 miles away. Factor in that the only other big-name pro franchises in either state belong to Seattle, and Moore said it is hard to find a smooth pipeline of like-minded sports fans in Vancouver that could possibly attract outside interest.
“Broad-based demand must exist to make any franchise opportunity an attractive option for investors,” Moore said.
Complicating the picture is Portland’s stranglehold over the most popular sports. The Rose City dominates basketball with the Blazers, soccer with the Timbers, and hockey with the Winterhawks.
Even the Portland State Vikings give Portland an edge in football, since Clark County’s lone four-year college, WSU Vancouver, lacks a full-time athletics program.
And while Portland will soon lose the Triple-A Beavers — leaving Southwest Washington with a large window of opportunity — Capeloto and mayor Leavitt said the city is not economically able to puruse an minor-league baseball team.
Still, both remain optimistic that Vancouver will acquire a significant sports franchise in the future. And they are united behind the idea that the push will be driven by what often proves to be an unstoppable force when called to action: The will of the people.
“Nothing good comes easy. A lot of great things have happened in our community during the past decade or so. And they happened because a lot of interested and passionate folks put effort into it and got behind it,” Leavitt said. “That will be what is necessary to get a minor-league team.
“It’s going to have to be more than just a handful of folks. It’s going to have to be a coalition.”
