MLB baseball feud over 2 Portland spots

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, hoping for a Major League Baseball stadium inside the city, encouraged backers of the Portland Diamond Project to consider the 144-acre Rose City Golf Course. But Craig Cheek of the Portland Diamond Project said backers of the MLB team still prefer the 164-acre RedTail Golf Course in Beaverton in Washington County and offered the city of Portland—its owners—$50 million for the property in January, according to the Portland Business Journal. A smaller site at the Lloyd Center has also been discussed. But the RedTale site near Washington Square Mall lacks public transit and infrastructure. Salt Lake City also hopes to be the new site in the West for an MLB team, so time may be running out for the Portland Diamond Project and a proposed new $1.2 billion new stadium.

Already, Oregon taxpayers paid $40 million to upgrade the Hillsboro Hops baseball stadium which only serves less than 2,000 people on a given day, making it among the worst sports attendance leagues.