Portland already has a professional basketball team, a soccer team, and soon a women’s basketball team as well. One of the two major holes that Portland has and what the Portland Diamond Project (PDP) wants is a baseball team.
Since 2017, the Portland Diamond Project has been campaigning for an official Major League Baseball (MLB) team. Jeremy Shetler, the head coach of the baseball team at Ida B. Wells, said about the success of the PDP, “[It’s been] more [successful] than any other group that’s done it before.” A factor of this success could be the big names that invested early into the program, including Russell Wilson, well-known NFL quarterback and former Seattle Seahawk, and Ciara, a Grammy-winning singer.
Their reasoning behind bringing the MLB to Portland is the belief that it will give Portlanders more job opportunities, expand the transit around Portland and include possible new housing around the park. Shetler said about the possible expansion, “Any time you bring a professional team of any sort to an area, it creates a lot of opportunity for the city.”
It’s about time for the MLB to expand the league, with commissioner Rob Manfred saying he wants to increase the number of teams from 30 to 32. It’s just a matter of where. When people speculate about where the MLB may go, Portland is often in the conversation, but their main opponent for the expansion is Salt Lake City, according to ESPN. This is because Manfred has also said he wants one team in the east and one team in the west for this expansion.
It seems like Portland is the likely next stop for the MLB due to a recent offer by the Portland Diamond Project: Zidell Yards on the South Waterfront, right next to the Tilikum Bridge. Despite them proposing offers on this land, the MLB has made no official statements about whether or not they’re going to expand to Portland.
The project is publicly funded, and according to Oregon.gov they may add it to the tax spread. John Canzano of The Oregonian reported that there has been $1.3 billion committed in an investor group. This amount of $1.3 billion is not quite enough to complete the project, thus why they’re looking for other investments from the public.
The MLB’s franchise expansion is a guarantee as of now, and the Portland Diamond Project offering a claim on new land on the South Waterfront could foretell the future of this expansion. However, time will only tell what happens until the MLB gives out word on the situation.
