Without much time to review the 130-page lease, the Hillsboro City Council agreed to the 50-year financial package between the City of Hillsboro and the Hillsboro Hops. The new baseball stadium has not started yet, and the Hops are overdue on landing their financing package. Despite that, the lease and the replacement field plans were approved by the Council tonight. Mayor Callaway pushed this through and around all obstacles this past year, including the City Parks Commission. The man with the best seats in the house would not take no for an answer.
All that is required now is for the Hops to land their 82 million-dollar loan, the money will flow, and fields 4,5, and 6 will be torn out to make way for the facility.
Here are some slides from the meeting.
There is a lot to like about this lease, although the financial arrangments are a bit murky.
You can see the lease right here. Good luck with reading it!
The lease has some holes. Under certain circumstances, one has to wonder if the taxpayers could be stuck with the new Stadium and the costs. Having said that, the deal is almost done; the demolition machines are warmed up and ready, and the Mayor got what he wanted. This will be remembered as a very divisive part of his terms in office by many. For those who love baseball this keeps Hillsboro as one of the spots to catch some fun minor league ball in the NW. Concerts and other big events will be coming to town as well at the new venue.
Hillsboro’s financial commitments are just over $43 Million when the replacement field costs are tallied in. Some of that will be paid back overtime with a ticket surcharge, but the lease terms show that could take many decades to play out. A big deal with big money involved. I hope it works out for everyone involved and that the Hops have a long successful future here!
More to follow on this one. Play ball, folks.
What is “GFRC”?
Gordon Faber Recreation Complex… he was our former Mayor and a hometown boy and it was his desire and dream to have the 6 fields and football stadium to be there the youth and high school sports of Hillsboro! He would have never approved of this current situation.
The Hops can’t afford the debt service they have now, so how in the hell are they gonna Service the lease to the city…
And the $82 mil they borrow? Leave it to Callaway to selfishly gratify himself at others peril. The lack of any fiscal acumen here is astonishing!
The Thorns Academy team just played the Wrexham AFC women’s team at Providence Park. That semi-pro soccer match, which ended in a 7-0 win for Thorns Academy, drew 10,379 people.
Same night, just about 80 degrees at first pitch, the Hops hosted Marvel night and fireworks—a promotional doubleheader. They drew 3,696. That’s a big crowd for the Hops—especially followed by a weekend where they drew two 2,900 crowds and preceded by a week during which attendance flirted with 2,000.
The new stadium seats 6,500.
The Portland Pickles are currently averaging 3,493 fans per game. The Hops averaged 2,405 per game and would have to basically sell out the stretch to significantly exceed that. The Timbers are drawing 21,295 per match, with the Thorns averaging 18,880 through July.. An estimated 20,000 people showed up for Formula E races at PIR this summer, never mind the 50,000 who come out for NASCAR and the 40,000 who typically show up for IndyCar.
There are places where the notoriously unsporty Portland metro could benefit from investment in its sports infrastructure. We saw that when both the NHL and WNBA passed on the city strictly because of the state of Blazers ownership and the Moda Center renovation schedule. Enhancements to Mode and the surrounding Rose Quarter, PIR, and Providence Park and Goose Hollow would go a long way toward bringing more sports investment here in a way that fits the region’s culture.
But the singular focus of a small collective of old men who can’t let go of their under attended pastime or see how the Portland area regularly exports better baseball product (Baseballism, DiMarini, Wilson) than it uses defies logic. The sports that succeed here do so because they’ve successfully marketed to niches that otherwise wouldn’t show up to their events.
Friday night fireworks and half-full buildings aren’t a sustainable business practice. Finding growing audiences, learning their interests and making the case through public figures and investors the city knows and loves (looking (looking at the Eatons, Brandin Cooks, Jeremy Ebobisse and Joey Harrington joining the Thorns) and actually caring about your local, growing programs (the Hops detaching from softball is the absolute worst when MLB advises the exact opposite) is the way forward here.
Spot on analysis. Those Pickles are somthing else! And what a great showing for the Wrexham game! I am not sure the financing package has been signed yet but the bulldozers are ready to move on the 3 rec fields. The whole thing seems based on the blind ambition of SC and the ownership and a small handful of political influencers. The proof will be in the pudding!
Thanks, Jason!
And what was reported attendance on groundbreaking/Corbin Carroll Bobblehead night on a beautiful Thursday evening? 2,689. You can see why those $43 million in public funds and 1,500 extra seats for baseball were absolutely necessary.
“This is a challenging moment in American history. We are polarized. We are divided. People are isolated,” Oregon State representative Ben Bowman said. “What is the antidote to isolation and polarization? It turns out the antidote is baseball.”
“Sports is fundamentally about community. It’s about being in community with your neighbors,” Bowman said. “When I’m out at a Hillsboro Hops game and I’m giving high fives to people sitting next to me after a home run, I have no idea what their political registration is and I frankly don’t care. We need spaces in this country and in this state where that is true.”
So not only taking Hops tickets, but seeing them as a political distraction. Also, fun fact: That stadium—and pretty much all of Hillsboro—isn’t in Ben’s district! I don’t know how many “neighbors” he’s high fiving, but at an average of 2,040 per game in a 4,500-seat facility, he has to lean pretty far over those seats.
https://www.oregonlive.com/mlb/2024/08/hillsboro-hops-celebrate-groundbreaking-for-new-stadium.html