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Portland, Montreal slowly move forward on new MLB stadiums

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The scoop from Portland:

Let's first talk about the Portland Beavers, their AAA club.  In 2009, Portland had the Beavers, a AAA affiliate that played in PGE Park.  Portland was awarded a Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise in the Portland Timbers.  MLS has strict requirements on field dimensions which usually prevent MLS teams from playing in baseball stadiums.  $31 million was spent to renovate PGE Park to convert it into a soccer field, which meant the venue could no longer be used by the Beavers for baseball in 2011.  The Beavers needed to find a new venue.  There were rumors of perhaps tearing down Portland's Memorial Coliseum and building a new AAA park there, or building something in the Rose Quarter, or perhaps in Lents Park.  Instead, absolutely nothing was done.  With no place to play baseball, the owner of the Beavers sold the team in 2010 and the new ownership moved the Beavers to Tuscon. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_Beavers_Ballpark

Enter the Portland Diamond Project.  The Diamond Project is a plan to construct a new 32,000 seat MLB-ready ballpark in Portland.  It is set to be built in Terminal 2 of the Port of Portland, a major shipping port on the Williamette River and will overlook the port and river.  It will have a retractable roof (pictures are in the next link).  Paying for the venue is an issue.  Currently the group has access to $150 million in public funds that was set aside in 2003 when the city was trying to lure the Expos to Portland.   They also have major investors lined up including QB Russell Wilson of the Seahawks and his wife, Grammy award winning singer Ciara.  The goal is have the stadium built and team in place by 2022. 

https://patch.com/oregon/portland/portland-baseball-stadium-closer-diamond-project-strikes-deal

https://ballparkdigest.com/2018/11/29/portland-diamond-project-unveil-ballpark-site-renderings/

The scoop from Montreal:

The ownership group known as the Montreal Group is currently eyeing the Peel Basin area as a site for a new MLB ballpark.  Montreal mayor Valerie Plante has not seen a business plan from the group and talks are still in preliminary stages, but the interest and money is there.

https://ballparkdigest.com/2019/02/14/site-emerging-for-new-montreal-mlb-ballpark/

The scoop from Nashville:

Businessman John Loar heads a group seeking to bring MLB to Nashville.  Tony La Russa (former MLB manager with the Cardinals and As) is a big promoter of this.  No business plans are available.  The city current has the NFL Titans, the NHL Predators, an expansion MLS team coming online, and in 2015 they just built a new baseball stadium for the AAA Nashville Sounds.  The Sounds are a very successful minor league team and their stadium cannot be expanded to meet MLB requirements, so a brand new one would have to be built. 

https://ballparkdigest.com/2019/01/30/la-russa-mlb-could-succeed-in-nashville/

MLB comissioner Bob Manfred has said that the league wishes to expand to 32 teams soon, so neither city is likely to get a current team to move there.  At this point, it feels like MLB will plant new expansion teams in Portland and Montreal, and Nashville is set to act as a backup in case 1 of those cities fail to deliver.

 

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38 minutes ago, riversco said:

The scoop from Portland:

Let's first talk about the Portland Beavers, their AAA club.  In 2009, Portland had the Beavers, a AAA affiliate that played in PGE Park.  Portland was awarded a Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise in the Portland Timbers.  MLS has strict requirements on field dimensions which usually prevent MLS teams from playing in baseball stadiums.  $31 million was spent to renovate PGE Park to convert it into a soccer field, which meant the venue could no longer be used by the Beavers for baseball in 2011.  The Beavers needed to find a new venue.  There were rumors of perhaps tearing down Portland's Memorial Coliseum and building a new AAA park there, or building something in the Rose Quarter, or perhaps in Lents Park.  Instead, absolutely nothing was done.  With no place to play baseball, the owner of the Beavers sold the team in 2010 and the new ownership moved the Beavers to Tuscon. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_Beavers_Ballpark

Enter the Portland Diamond Project.  The Diamond Project is a plan to construct a new 32,000 seat MLB-ready ballpark in Portland.  It is set to be built in Terminal 2 of the Port of Portland, a major shipping port on the Williamette River and will overlook the port and river.  It will have a retractable roof (pictures are in the next link).  Paying for the venue is an issue.  Currently the group has access to $150 million in public funds that was set aside in 2003 when the city was trying to lure the Expos to Portland.   They also have major investors lined up including QB Russell Wilson of the Seahawks and his wife, Grammy award winning singer Ciara.  The goal is have the stadium built and team in place by 2022. 

https://patch.com/oregon/portland/portland-baseball-stadium-closer-diamond-project-strikes-deal

https://ballparkdigest.com/2018/11/29/portland-diamond-project-unveil-ballpark-site-renderings/

The scoop from Montreal:

The ownership group known as the Montreal Group is currently eyeing the Peel Basin area as a site for a new MLB ballpark.  Montreal mayor Valerie Plante has not seen a business plan from the group and talks are still in preliminary stages, but the interest and money is there.

https://ballparkdigest.com/2019/02/14/site-emerging-for-new-montreal-mlb-ballpark/

The scoop from Nashville:

Businessman John Loar heads a group seeking to bring MLB to Nashville.  Tony La Russa (former MLB manager with the Cardinals and As) is a big promoter of this.  No business plans are available.  The city current has the NFL Titans, the NHL Predators, an expansion MLS team coming online, and in 2015 they just built a new baseball stadium for the AAA Nashville Sounds.  The Sounds are a very successful minor league team and their stadium cannot be expanded to meet MLB requirements, so a brand new one would have to be built. 

https://ballparkdigest.com/2019/01/30/la-russa-mlb-could-succeed-in-nashville/

MLB comissioner Bob Manfred has said that the league wishes to expand to 32 teams soon, so neither city is likely to get a current team to move there.  At this point, it feels like MLB will plant new expansion teams in Portland and Montreal, and Nashville is set to act as a backup in case 1 of those cities fail to deliver.

 

Would be cool if a team lands in PDX, as that would result in an instant built in rivalry between PDX and Seattle. 

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Portland HAD a baseball team. They were called the Portland Mavericks. Watch The Battered Bastards of Baseball on Netflix. Awesome watch. 

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Tampa should move to whatever city doesn't get a new franchise. They have terrible attendance and it has been that way even when they had good teams. And their ballpark is a joke.

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If two more teams are added and have 16 per league, then they can get rid of interleague play...

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12 minutes ago, posty said:

If two more teams are added and have 16 per league, then they can get rid of interleague play...

I would be in favor of getting rid of the unbalanced schedule, and you play every team (or almost every team) at least one series.  Then you can flip flop the who the home team is every other year.

Which also means adding the DH to the NL.

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And 4 mandatory saturday or sunday true double headers for each team.  2 on the road and 2 at home.

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5 hours ago, Drizzay said:

Which also means adding the DH to the NL.

Nope...

How about getting rid of the DH?  They talk that they want to make the games shorter, can the DH...  Make all nine fielders hit the way they are supposed to...

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