Portland Beavers (2001-2010)

Pacific Coast League (2001-2010)

Background

The Pacific Coast League’s Portland Beavers of 2001 to 2010 were the last of four editions of the Beavers to compete in the historic Class AAA circuit dating back to the early 20th century. The latter day Beavers arrived in 2001 as part of an ambitious $38.5 million overhaul of Portland’s aging Civic Stadium.

The project was spearheaded by a group called Portland Family Entertainment. The plan called for PFE to acquire interests in three professional sports franchise. The centerpiece would be a Triple-A franchise in the Pacific Coast League, which would require PFE to acquire and relocate an existing club. After making an unsuccessful run at the PCL’s Calgary Cannons in 1999, PFE ultimately purchased the league’s Albuquerque Dukes in early 2000 for a planned April 2001 debut in the Rose City.

PFE’s second sports franchise would be the displaced Portland Rockies of the Class A Northwest League. The Rockies had held down the fort for Portland’ die hard baseball fans since the departure of the previous version of the Beavers in 1994. PFE acquired the Rockies, moved the club to Pasco, Washington where it became the Tri-City Dust Devils in 2001 and retained ownership.

Finally, PFE launched an expansion soccer franchise in the 2nd Division A-League, one level below Major League Soccer. The team would be known as Timbers. Like the Beavers in baseball, the Timbers were a revival of a team identity used by multiple earlier versions of the city’s pro soccer clubs.

As part of the stadium renovation undertaken in 2000-2001, PFE signed a naming rights deal with Portland General Electric worth $8.5 million over 10 years.¹Brettman, Allan. “PGE paid $1 million for a year of stadium naming rights; Jeld-Wen, Providence payment unknown.” The Oregonian. February 21, 2014 Civic Stadium became PGE Park when the park re-opened for the Beavers in April 2001.

In Competition

The latter day Beavers were the top farm club of the San Diego Padres for all ten seasons of their existence. The team managed only two winning campaigns in ten years and just one playoff appearance. That postseason trip came in 2004 when the Beavers posted the best record (84-60) in the 16-team Pacific Coast League. The eventual champion Sacramento River Cats knocked the Beavers out 3 games to 1 in the first round of the playoffs in 2004.

Financial Problems

The renovation of Civic Stadium/PGE Park proved to be an over-leveraged boondoogle. The $38.5 million price tag  for the ballpark plus the cost of acquiring three pro franchises came from a variety of sources, including investments from fourteen Portland business leaders recruited as limited partners in Portland Family Entertainment by original PFE front men Marshall Glickman and Mark Gardiner. But the biggest source of funding was an investment of $23.5 million from New York-based teacher’s pension fund TIAA-CREF²Gullo, Jim. “The Player”. Portland Monthly. August 2008.

PFE under Glickman and Gardiner ran into financial problems from day one, requiring an unexpected capital call to the limited partners just months into the Beavers’ opening season in 2001. PFE lost over $10 million dollars on the operation of the Beavers, Timbers and Tri-City Dust Devils in its first two seasons and founders Glickman and Gardiner were removed from their posts shortly after the first season concluded.

In the years that followed, a succession of A-List Minor League Baseball operators stepped forward to try to right the ship in Portland. Marv Goldklang and Mike Veeck’s Goldklang Group signed on to manage operations for PFE in 2002 but were gone by the following year. On opening day of the 2004 season, the Pacific Coast League itself finally seized the listing franchise from PFE once and for all. A period of conservatorship followed, where the management staff of the PCL’s Sacramento River Cats, considered one of the top business operations in all of Minor League Baseball, steered the business activities of the rival Beavers in 2004 and into 2005.

Ultimately, the Beavers and the Timbers soccer team passed back into more conventional (albeit absentee) ownership in 2005 when absentee owner Abe Alizadeh, a Jack In The Box restaurant franchisee from Sacramento purchased the club. Alizadeh sold the the club two years later to a group led by Merritt Paulson, which possessed the commitment and financial wherewithal to stabilize the long-troubled club. But other development brewing on the Portland sports scene would conspire to bring about the end of the Beavers instead.

Displaced

In March 2009, Major League Soccer awarded a Portland expansion franchise to Merritt Paulson, the son of former Goldman Sachs CEO and U.S. Treasure Secretary Hank Paulson. Paulson’s new Major League Soccer club would also be known as the Timbers and begin play in 2011. They would replace Paulson’s existing 2nd Division Timbers club, which would cease operations at the end of the 2010. A requirement of the deal was that PGE park undergo a new round of major renovations to convert it into a soccer-only facility prior to the Timbers MLS debut in 2011.

Paulson hoped to work with city leaders to identify a site for a new ballpark for the Beavers, who would need to leave PGE Park after the 2010 season. However, Paulson and the city were unable to find a suitable site. In late 2010, Paulson sold the Beavers to San Diego Padres owner Jeff Moorad, who moved the team to Tucson, Arizona in November of that year.

The former Beavers franchise remains in the Pacific Coast League today. After a subsequent move from Tucson, the team is now known as the El Paso Chihuahuas and remains a San Diego Padres farm club.

Portland Beavers Shop

Downloads

4-15-2002 Beavers vs. Memphis Redbirds Game Notes

Links

Pacific Coast League Media Guides

Pacific Coast League Programs

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