Adams, Leonard still a vote short of Soccer City goal

Paulson says the stadum plan is ‘a good deal for the city and for taxpayers’

By Jim Redden

The Portland Tribune, Mar 10, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (26 Reader comments)

Tribune File Photo

Merritt Paulson, owner of the Portland Timbers, has reached a tentative deal with the city to bring a Major League Soccer team to PGE Park. The deal still must gain City Council approval Wednesday morning.

A complicated deal to bring a Major League Soccer team to Portland heads to the City Council Wednesday morning still one vote short of approval.

On Tuesday morning, Mayor Sam Adams and city Commissioner Randy Leonard outlined for reporters a deal they put together with local businessman Merritt Paulson.

The deal calls for the city and Paulson to spend just under $129 million to remodel PGE Park for an MLS team and build a 9,000-seat AAA baseball stadium in the Rose Quarter on the site of Memorial Coliseum for the Beavers, the team also owned by Paulson.

The city would pay for its share by selling $64.5 million worth of bonds. Paulson would raise the rest of the money.

The city would also pay the first $2.5 million in cost overruns from an existing capital construction fund. Paulson would be responsible for all other cost overruns.

Paulson owns both the Portland Beavers AAA baseball team and the Portland Timbers, a United Soccer League First Division team that plays at PGE Park.

Paulson defended his proposal Tuesday, saying it would be “a very good deal for the city and for taxpayers.”

“This plan creates hundreds of jobs, protects taxpayers from risk and brings even better soccer and baseball to Portland and Oregon,” Paulson said in a statement. “We have agreed to finance or guarantee a majority of the project, to safeguard against cost overruns and to expand our already ambitious involvement in the community.”

Paulson also praised Adams and Leonard and said he would “continue working with them to secure City Council approval of the plan and to turning this dream into an exciting reality.”

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