Professional sports in Portland (Beaver: transplants, 2014, layoffs)

[AndyAMG]

1. Seattle Seahawks are number 17 when it comes to catchment area/viewers/fans. Portland's team would be less profitable than the Jaguars. There may be 2/3 million fans tops, if that.

2. Portland has a strict set of Urban Growth Boundary and environmental laws as well as a populous opposed to putting fluoride in the water. The idea of taxpayer funded stadium on valuable land would be about as popular as selling an igloo to Eskimos.

3. We have a minor league team in hockey, no one cares. So NHL is out.

4. The Mariners are 3 hours away. Our AAA teams always have interest initially but then it wanes as the season goes on.

5. The Blazers are not doing well financially. There has been talk of the Blazers leaving Portland, Paul Allen wanted a new stadium and said he'd move the team. The people of the city said renovate it or hit the road Pauly. The Blazers are still here and the "Moda Center" got renovated.

Generally Portland is a city of nerdy un-sporty "intellectuals" and "artists." The only reason the city has embraced the Timbers is so a bunch of bearded drunks can pretend they are like European soccer hooligans.

For football we have the Ducks and that's all the football needed.

For Hockey we have the Winterhawks, for baseball we have the Hops. Generally they offer fire sale tickets on groupon constantly, so obviously attendance is an issue. If the Coyotes are having trouble with 5 million people what hope can Portland have with 2.4 million.

Baseball: Most people are Mariners or Giants fans or wherever they came from they could not possibly care less whether portland had a team. The only reason people would go to the games is to watch their team beat Portland. Merchandise sales revenue would be low.

[pnwguy2]

Originally Posted by AndyAMG

1. Seattle Seahawks are number 17 when it comes to catchment area/viewers/fans. Portland's team would be less profitable than the Jaguars. There may be 2/3 million fans tops, if that.

2. Portland has a strict set of Urban Growth Boundary and environmental laws as well as a populous opposed to putting fluoride in the water. The idea of taxpayer funded stadium on valuable land would be about as popular as selling an igloo to Eskimos.

3. We have a minor league team in hockey, no one cares. So NHL is out.

4. The Mariners are 3 hours away. Our AAA teams always have interest initially but then it wanes as the season goes on.

5. The Blazers are not doing well financially. There has been talk of the Blazers leaving Portland, Paul Allen wanted a new stadium and said he'd move the team. The people of the city said renovate it or hit the road Pauly. The Blazers are still here and the "Moda Center" got renovated.

Generally Portland is a city of nerdy un-sporty "intellectuals" and "artists." The only reason the city has embraced the Timbers is so a bunch of bearded drunks can pretend they are like European soccer hooligans.

For football we have the Ducks and that's all the football needed.

For Hockey we have the Winterhawks, for baseball we have the Hops. Generally they offer fire sale tickets on groupon constantly, so obviously attendance is an issue. If the Coyotes are having trouble with 5 million people what hope can Portland have with 2.4 million.

Baseball: Most people are Mariners or Giants fans or wherever they came from they could not possibly care less whether portland had a team. The only reason people would go to the games is to watch their team beat Portland. Merchandise sales revenue would be low.

Good post. I think you summed it up quite well. I will add that Portland had several chances to build stadiums to support NFL or MLB, but they fell apart pretty quickly. This is not a knock on Portland, it actually is praise, as your city knows what they want and are not afraid to stand up for it. Portland is Portland, and atleast it doesn't pretend to be something it isn't. I kinda like that.

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by pnwguy2

Good post. I think you summed it up quite well. I will add that Portland had several chances to build stadiums to support NFL or MLB, but they fell apart pretty quickly. This is not a knock on Portland, it actually is praise, as your city knows what they want and are not afraid to stand up for it. Portland is Portland, and at least it doesn't pretend to be something it isn't. I kinda like that.

It's not even that Portland wouldn't ever consider an NFL or MLB stadium. It's that Portland will never win the arms race against other cities to throw ever growing billions of tax dollars at billionaire owners. Portland's city and regional government is too diverse and eclectic to ever unite around a campaign to attract a major sports team. And the population would never get behind it.

There are many other cities around the country that are roughly the same size as PDX for whom that is not the case. Cities where the business elites basically own the town and can ram through those mega sweetheart stadium deals. Unless I miss my guess, San Antonio will be the next town on the list to do that. That part of Texas is growing like wildfire and is completely connected to the Mexico markets which are huge and growing for the NFL and MLB.

Plus, the MLB and NFL owners, prefer warmer climates because they all have dreams of hosting Super Bowls and New Years Day college bowl games in their shiny new stadiums. So the warm weather cities like San Antonio or Vegas have a huge advantage. What was the weather like this past December and early Jan in Portland? Right.

The other problem is that the Seattle teams already pretty much own the greater Northwest and Alaska market. Travel anywhere in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, etc. and you are in Seahawks and Mariners country. I used to live in Alaska and the sports bars and fans were pretty much universally Seahawks and Mariners fans. Some new Portland team is never going to break into that market. So it would mostly be limited to Western Oregon and there just aren't enough fans in Oregon to matter.

[SyraBrian]

A major league lacrosse franchise would be a good fit for Portland. Matches could be played at Providence Park.

[S550]

Originally Posted by Port Pitt Ash

If you walked up to and surveyed 100 people in Portland on what are two professional sports they followed on a regular (weekly/daily) basis I'm guessing your numbers are going to be very, very low.

Oh so the trail blazers are not a HUGE FIXTURE in this town? It's actually why they have top 10 attendance every year and the longest streak for selling out seats in the NBA ever..

**** even the Portland Timbers have not had less then a sell out since their entry to the MLS in 2011.

You must be an outta tower from Idaho or something that's not use to professional sports

[S550]

Originally Posted by AndyAMG

1. Seattle Seahawks are number 17 when it comes to catchment area/viewers/fans. Portland's team would be less profitable than the Jaguars. There may be 2/3 million fans tops, if that.

2. Portland has a strict set of Urban Growth Boundary and environmental laws as well as a populous opposed to putting fluoride in the water. The idea of taxpayer funded stadium on valuable land would be about as popular as selling an igloo to Eskimos.

3. We have a minor league team in hockey, no one cares. So NHL is out.

4. The Mariners are 3 hours away. Our AAA teams always have interest initially but then it wanes as the season goes on.

5. The Blazers are not doing well financially. There has been talk of the Blazers leaving Portland, Paul Allen wanted a new stadium and said he'd move the team. The people of the city said renovate it or hit the road Pauly. The Blazers are still here and the "Moda Center" got renovated.

Generally Portland is a city of nerdy un-sporty "intellectuals" and "artists." The only reason the city has embraced the Timbers is so a bunch of bearded drunks can pretend they are like European soccer hooligans.

For football we have the Ducks and that's all the football needed.

For Hockey we have the Winterhawks, for baseball we have the Hops. Generally they offer fire sale tickets on groupon constantly, so obviously attendance is an issue. If the Coyotes are having trouble with 5 million people what hope can Portland have with 2.4 million.

Baseball: Most people are Mariners or Giants fans or wherever they came from they could not possibly care less whether portland had a team. The only reason people would go to the games is to watch their team beat Portland. Merchandise sales revenue would be low.

Haha #5 is completely made up.. Links and sources please ? Lol

[boulder2015]

Originally Posted by S550

Haha #5 is completely made up.. Links and sources please ? Lol

Yeah ignore andyand portpittash... lol.

Really cracks me up to see right wing kooks use this to bash portland liberals!

Newsflash: you do realize what PUBLIC funds are right? They come from TAXES... you know that thing conservatives lose sleep over? So for once liberals "hipster nerdy intellectuals" refuse to spend other peoples cash and conservative sports fans get upset? The irony is thick.... Portland sports fans would welcome an NFL team if they operated on an SF Giants model: build your own freaking stadium with YOUR private sector dollars.

Also if the nfl is considering moving to PDX instead of vegas its because they dont want the sports betting mafias that close to a team whose players live in sin city. Too easy to compromise them with hookers and such through extortion. It has nothing to do with the success of the timbers.

[jjpop]

Originally Posted by SyraBrian

A major league lacrosse franchise would be a good fit for Portland. Matches could be played at Providence Park.

Yeah, or ultimate frisbee.

[CanuckInPortland]

Originally Posted by AndyAMG

3. We have a minor league team in hockey, no one cares. So NHL is out.

For Hockey we have the Winterhawks, for baseball we have the Hops. Generally they offer fire sale tickets on groupon constantly, so obviously attendance is an issue. If the Coyotes are having trouble with 5 million people what hope can Portland have with 2.4 million.

Winterhawks actually get pretty good crowds for an WHL team. They ranked second in the league last year after Calgary and above Edmonton(two real serious hockey cities). Far more people are going to show up for an NHL team rather than WHL team though.

WHL 2015-16 team attendance at hockeydb.com

Of course the Winterhawks aren't really a big topic of discussion in Portland outside a very few die-hards and hockey isn't a big sport in Oregon. Though basically outside the Northeast and Upper Midwest nowhere in the US really has a hockey fan-base until they actually get an NHL team(then people start following it more).

The reason though that Portland is going to get mentioned as a possible candidate for an NHL team is because the league wants a franchise in the Pacific Northwest and Seattle can't get their act together fast enough to build a NHL-worthy stadium(Key Arena was crap for hockey). As Portland has a decent NHL-ready venue(and is the largest metro in the US with only one pro sports team in the Big 4 leagues) it's going to keep having it's name come up. People will actually drive down from BC to see NHL games in Seattle or Portland if there was a franchise down here--since Canucks tickets are the highest prices in the NHL and every game sell out--and Canadians will drive 5 hours to see any pro hockey.

[boulder2015]

Originally Posted by CanuckInPortland

Winterhawks actually get pretty good crowds for an WHL team. They ranked second in the league last year after Calgary and above Edmonton(two real serious hockey cities). Far more people are going to show up for an NHL team rather than WHL team though.

WHL 2015-16 team attendance at hockeydb.com

Of course the Winterhawks aren't really a big topic of discussion in Portland outside a very few die-hards and hockey isn't a big sport in Oregon. Though basically outside the Northeast and Upper Midwest nowhere in the US really has a hockey fan-base until they actually get an NHL team(then people start following it more).

The reason though that Portland is going to get mentioned as a possible candidate for an NHL team is because the league wants a franchise in the Pacific Northwest and Seattle can't get their act together fast enough to build a NHL-worthy stadium(Key Arena was crap for hockey). As Portland has a decent NHL-ready venue(and is the largest metro in the US with only one pro sports team in the Big 4 leagues) it's going to keep having it's name come up. People will actually drive down from BC to see NHL games in Seattle or Portland if there was a franchise down here--since Canucks tickets are the highest prices in the NHL and every game sell out--and Canadians will drive 5 hours to see any pro hockey.

Yep. Winterhawks fans are rabid. The NHL would do great in pdx.