Memorial Coliseum

[Pounder]

Now that Viking Pavilion has a schedule, this comes up.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2015/03/big_bill_emerges_for_veterans.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

My quickie analysis: the cost increases from the last discussion are just steep enough to look realistic while likely giving Mayor Hales the impetus to say that he'd prefer to not bother with it.

Selling it would then be preferable. Who would buy it? I think the people who would consider that would instead choose to wait out the city, knowing that cities generally would have to agree to concessions in order to get something actually done.

Tearing down? Possible. Ballpark- I'll say this now. Heck no. That time has come and gone, and if AAA ball comes back to the region, I think it's safe to say it'll be in Hillsboro and Ron Tonkin Field would only need about a 1,500-seat expansion to get there. Besides, the Hops' ownership now basically owns the Portland market, so someone trying to bring affiliated ball would have to buy into that territory. Given the newness of Tonkin Field, the Hops probably won't leave anytime soon.

Now, a revised more retail-based version of Jumptown? That wouldn't surprise me.

 

[martymoose]

I love the commenters on Oregonlive:

"OHSU is no where close to the PSU campus, it's easier to get to the MC."

Uh, actually it's quite close and just minutes on the streetcar and a tram ride.

Anyways, with regards to the MC...

I agree with you with regards to a ballpark, not going to happen. I think baseball in the downtown area would be MLB or bust, and I don't see that ever happening. As a card carrying member of the Old Timers Baseball Association, it pains me to say that.

Those renovation costs are a bit steep and I'm not sure where they'd find private funds for it. It'll be a sad day in Portland if they go with the route of demolishing it.

 

[BroadwayVik]

If the MC were demolished, perhaps that is the source of the Viking Pavilion MC-like windowed exterior. If it were demolished, what a super exciting site for development, like a super-magnet in the marketplace.

It could be that the timing of the construction of the Viking Pavilion needs to coordinated with that possible deconstruction/demolition of the Memorial Coliseum. Perhaps because of the undeniable connection that PSU has to WWII Veterans, the G.I. Bill and their secondary education, the memorializing of them is more befitting and "legitimate" among the environs of Portland's public university rather than at the once stand-alone multi-purpose public facility.



Within this context, if this be the case, I would then like to think of the Viking Pavilion as the heir to the Veteran's Memorial Coliseum, if once public consent for the MC's demolition is successfully manufactured and the land beneath it is indeed cleared. So much can be transferred from the MC to the Viking Pavilion site for cost-savings and tribute-rendering retention of significant remnants of the Veteran's MC.