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Site search for MLS team shifts to suburbs

Hillsboro Stadium intrigues the Keston family as it considers where it might locate a pro soccer team

Friday, June 01, 2007

The city of Hillsboro has vaulted into a viable option for the owners of a potential Major League Soccer expansion franchise in the Pacific Northwest.

James Keston, a member of the California family that said it holds the exclusive rights to add an MLS franchise in the Portland or Seattle area, described Hillsboro as "by far, the most interesting development right now."

The idea of converting the 7,000-seat Hillsboro Stadium into a "first-class soccer-specific" venue that could hold 17,000 to 24,000 fans and surrounding the facility with amateur soccer fields "would be spectacular," Keston said.

PGE Park, the first option considered for an MLS venue in the Portland area, still is a possibility, he said, but a change in ownership of the city-owned stadium's two main tenants -- the Portland Beavers baseball team and the Portland Timbers soccer team -- have temporarily stalled discussions.

Keston's comments this week came nearly one month after his father, Michael Keston, a wealthy California real estate developer, disclosed plans to pick Portland or Seattle as the preferred city for Northwest expansion based on which had the best stadium lease to offer. But James Keston, 30, a recent graduate of the London School of Economics, said he and his father have since expanded their focus beyond Portland's PGE Park and Seattle's Qwest Field to sites in the cities' suburbs.

MLS commissioner Don Garber has endorsed both areas as viable candidates for one of three expansion teams the 13-team league wants to add by 2010.

A stadium tailored for soccer, surrounded by amateur soccer fields, would be "perfect, even better, perhaps, than a downtown stadium," said James Keston, who would assume a top leadership role in a Northwest expansion team. Such a facility, he said, would help concentrate soccer in one place in either community "and really keep fans near the stadium and excited about coming out there."

It would mirror MLS stadiums that are less than two years old in Frisco, Texas, a Dallas suburb, and Commerce City, Colo., a Denver suburb.

Erecting a soccer-centric facility becomes much easier in a suburban setting, Keston said. That is why he said he came away "very, very impressed" from a first meeting last week with Hillsboro Mayor Tom Hughes and an initial tour of the city's multipurpose stadium, which sits on a 90-plus acre site adjacent to U.S. 26.

"Obviously, we would have to do some serious rehab work," Keston said.

Developers would need to more than double the number of seats, plus add space for more concessions, restrooms and parking, as well as relocate four softball fields that currently surround the stadium.

It adds up to a pricey project. But it would pencil out for "a good deal less than it would cost to build a new stadium," Keston said. Michael Keston had estimated the expense for a new 25,000-seat stadium at $120 million.

Hughes described the idea as "within the range of being doable enough to talk about," but he would want the cost to the city to be "pretty minimal before I would jump on board the bandwagon."

The project probably would create more business for nearby hotels and restaurants, Hughes said, but any other gains for Hillsboro would be limited, compared with the billions of dollars in investment created by Intel and other high-tech businesses that have located plants in the city. Plus, he said, if an MLS team were to locate in Hillsboro, its name probably would not include the city's.

"The idea we would earn our place on the map and create an identity for the community and give us a big boost in economic development, all three of those ideas are mitigated a bit by the fact that we do OK in all those areas as is," Hughes said.

What portion of the costs Hillsboro would need to shoulder will be determined after Keston's return to Hillsboro Stadium within two weeks, accompanied by architects and engineers.

He also plans to meet for the first time with Merritt Paulson, the incoming owner of the Portland Beavers and Timbers. When Paulson's deal is finalized, he will control a lease that allows those teams -- whose games run concurrent with the spring-through-summer MLS season -- to play at PGE Park through 2010. Paulson also will have the option to extend the lease two additional years, and he has said he wants to discuss extending the lease with the city of Portland further.

Keston called Paulson's ownership "a wild card for us." During a May 22 news conference announcing his purchase of the Beavers and Timbers, Paulson said he was looking forward to MLS discussions but did not elaborate.

Keston said he and his father are continuing to evaluate their options in the Seattle area. Before his two-day visit to Portland and Hillsboro last week, James Keston said he spent two days in the Seattle area evaluating the same site in the south suburb of Renton that the owner of the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics was eyeing for a new arena.

The fate of the Sonics will have a big impact on the Kestons' consideration of the Seattle area for an MLS team, Keston said. Sonics owner Clay Bennett has threatened to relocate the team to Oklahoma City or Kansas City, Mo., unless Washington legislators help pay for a new arena for the team.

Talks also are ongoing with the operators of the 67,000-seat Qwest Field near downtown Seattle, Keston said. Qwest Field is home to the Seattle Seahawks of the NFL and the Seattle Sounders, rivals of the Portland Timbers who play in the First Division of the United Soccer Leagues, regarded as one notch below MLS.

The selection process is moving slower than the Kestons had wanted, but James Keston declined to say if he and his father were leaning toward one locale or another.

Drew Mahalic, the Oregon Sports Authority chief executive who is helping facilitate discussions between the Kestons and officials in Portland and Hillsboro, said he is gaining confidence that "something can happen here."

"We feel our time is well-spent trying to help them," Mahalic said. "We're already operating with the belief that if we can find a stadium that can work for them, this is an easy choice.

Suburbs of Portland Oregon (Pacific West)