PGE Park

Vacant

8/10

The exterior of the Stadium was one of the best features.Ivy, a old-fashioned neon sign and a schedule out front? Absolutely.

                                   

From the street, prior to the gates opening. You can see how much of PGE was in a hole.

         The giant, ivy colored wall and hand-operated scoreboard were unique touches.Was that giant bell for homeruns? I didn't see one, so I'm not sure.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Oregon minor league team leaves old-time ballpark for uncertain future(Eugene?).  I drove to Portland from Everett, not a very long drive at all and took in a game featuring the Portland Beavers, who were the San Diego AAA affiliate at the time and the Tacoma Rainiers. I stopped in the southern suburbs of Portland and drove all the way to San Francisco the next night.

This place is also a depression-era park, it’s a unique setup as it’s built on a slight hill, so the park is sunken below street level. The concourse isn’t usually a favourite of mine, but this one looks great, has good souvenir stands and lots of food options, definitely a plus. But, there must be progress. The Beavs’ summer roommates, the Portland Timbers soccer team moved into Major League Soccer in 2011. One of the caveats? No more turf and no more dirt. So the Beavers had to move. There was talk of going to Beaverton, Oregon, there was also a possible temporary home at the Clark County Fairgrounds in nearby Vancouver, Washington, across the Columbia.

Still, the Beavers' attendance at PGE(Now JeldWen Field) was terrible, as they drew under 7,000 for their home opener in 2010. I couldn't believe it was so poorly attended. “I’d hate to see Portland get their team taken away after fighting to get them back” was what I said when I reviewed the park in 2010 after a 2009 visit, but that’s exactly what happened. The team and city couldn’t settle on a new site for a stadium, and the Beavers were sold to a group that will have them play in Tucson for 2011, then Escondido(a suburb of San Diego) for 2012 in a new park. Such are the ups and downs of having a minor-league ballclub.

As of 2014, this team finally has a permanent home. The plan to build a park in suburban San Diego failed to gain support from local legislators, once their preferred method of financing was shut down by the state government, so, the Tucson Padres, as the Beavers became, ended up making a three year run from 2011-2013 before finally building a park in El Paso, TX and taking the name, the El Paso Chihuahuas.

The area around PGE was residential, I can’t think of too many others where’s that’s the case. Large condo buildings, a hotel and a gym(The Multnomah Athletic Club, which has a seating area overlooking the park) are in the neighbourhood, as is a stop for the MAX light rail, so if you’re set up to stay the night in Portland, take the train to the park. There is a decent looking sports bar in the basement of a condo building on Morrison Street. Parking was in a parkade across the street and was around 15 bucks, but there were so few people in the area that it was ok to get out.

It was quite empty, but it’s a nice park. There's so many unique quirks, the layout is pleasant and shows the results of some prudent renovations the last time the Beavers moved away. Don't even get me started about the feral cat colony for pest control(didn't see one). There is an electronic video board, but it’s small enough that it augments the nice hand operate scoreboard in left. The park being in the middle of the city is always a plus in my book, that’s where they belong. There are plenty of places to hang out before or after the ballgame. 

The only criticism of the park that I had was the relatively poor attendance, which is one of the reasons they left town, still everything else was top notch. It was a pretty place to watch a ballgame and is probably one of my top 5 parks period.

Update 2016: In the end, the Chihuahuas, as they're now known, got a shiny new ballpark in El Paso, Texas. PGE Park is now Jeld-Wen Field and home to Major League Soccer's Portland Timbers, who won the 2015 MLS Cup. There is a whole new stand across the former outfield, plus a grass field. Both the franchise and city seem better off without one another.

I have had to seriously revise the rating here though from a 10, down to an 8. While there's no doubt in my mind of PGE being a good ballpark, the atmosphere was lacking, as only 4,000 in a stadium like that seemed empty. The only other person in my section left very early. I also didn't eat here, my fault, but I don't give out the food point if I didn't. It's still too bad things didn't work out, but at least with Hillsboro's new park, there's an option for local fans.

Linescore:
2009-08-26
                                          123     456     789  10   RHE
Tacoma Rainiers(SEA)         000     001     000   1    250
Portland Beavers(SD)           001     000     000   0   160
Temp:81F   Time: 2:57  Att: 4,052