ask force reports
eating need unmet|
g McCaffrey
i Print
jd you see the obituary in
Lper Monday? Could you
it? I must tell you
yh,that I've been expecting
about a week now. Still it
Jtobelieve, being so young
ill, And only a year ago the
'ieof health. At least they
have waited for the actual
before writing the obitu-
That's journalism for you,
,hyienas with pens. Still,
t experts do agree on what
¡rove to be the cause of
Hell, when you got a
jj Walton it don't take no
tto tell you that you are
toN*B*Adie.
thout Bill it was obvious
the Portland Trail Blazers
forget about repeating as
. champions again this
Oregon is being invited to
d a short wake. After-
all participants in Blazer-
are invited to receptions
air friendly neighborhood
nwtiere all will be invited to
Them Ole' Wait 'Till Next
Blues. (Despite popular
I, San Francisco and Phil-
Ilia do not have exclusive
Bto this song.)
you are sitting in the tav-
Iking of the glorious deeds
¡cruel twists of fate do you
fantasize about actually
the contests yourself, live,
St the prejudices of the
box between you and the basket­
ball? Do other Blazermaniacs
begin to think to themselves
that the city of Denver, Colo­
rado is no bigger than Portland
and they got a championship
basketball team and they got a
professional baseball team to go
with them.
True, they still
haven't got the Trail Blazers but
what they got ain't bad consider­
ing that they come from the
second best state in the union.
This causes the Blazermaniac
to think about what might be
the difference in the two cities.
What attracts three professional
sports to one city while Port­
land has only managed to attract
one major league sport? The dif­
ference soon becomes obvious,
Denver is set up with facilities
that can handle major league
quality and volume.
Anyone who has tried to get
tickets to see the Blazers this
year can testify to how badly
additional seating is needed V
handle the demands for tickets.
For these reasons the Memorial
Coliseum has appointed a task
force to study the possibility of
a new sports and entertainment
center and issue a report.
The task force is made up of
private citizens who were asked
to serve on a volunteer basis as a
body to investigate facility needs
in the city and available options
fteátaurant anb $ub
of (Safe (grobe
Every Wednesday
Pat Patee
Oldies but Goodies
16900 S.E. McLoughlin Blvd.
centimeters
Colors by Munsell Color Services Lab 85
■
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The Memorial Coliseum's (above & below
left) 12,666 seating capacity is inadequate for
a city of Portland's size. A citizen task force
to meet those needs; to study
costs and operational revenue
costs; to study potential sites
for development of these facili­
ties; to evaluate capital funding
alternatives and estimate the
economic and environmental im­
pacts (including the no-build
option).
The task force committee
hired the Stanford research in­
stitute (SRI) to put together this
investigation and issue a report.
SRI concluded that there is a
great unmet need for more'seat-
ing capacity in the arena. The
_______
research group feels that about
4500 seats could be added to the
present structure at a cost of
about $9 million.
.
Other suggestions include a
new 8,000 seat facility which
could accomodate a full range
of floor configurations from bas­
ketball to hockey. This would
cost around $14 million. Also
being considered is a completely
18,000 seat auditorium costing
$24 million.
Propositions by SRI concern­
ing the now ragged civic stadium
facilities include roofing and ex-
set up to examine the problem has determined
that additional facilities will be needed in the
near future.
panding the present stadium at a
cost of about $12 million or
building a new single form (foot­
ball and soccer only) stadium at
a cost of about $19 million,
Finally, a new 35,000-55,000
multi-form stadium at a cost of
about $28 million. Interesting-
ly enough, Glackamas was one
of the most frequently named
sites for a potential new facility.
It is becoming increasingly ob­
vious that the needs of Portland
have outgrown its sports and
entertainment facilities.
Civic
Stadium, a 27,000 seat facility
built in 1927, was in deplorable
condition to host the profession­
al soccer championships last sum­
mer.
The Memorial Coliseum
with its famous capacity of
12,666 is shown to be inade­
quate by the overflow crowds
at the Paramount paying seven
dollars and fifty cents to watch
the boob tube.
If Portland wishes to continue
to belong to the mainstream of
high quality professional talent
to the area, then the city must
be willing to pay the price that
this attitude demands. Putting
up new sports facilities will be
expensive and will take years to
become reality..
In the end
there is still no guarantee that
any other professional sports
will take an interest in Portland.
The whole project could turn
into needless waste of money
and effort.
Portland will be forced very
Portland will be forced very
soon to make important decis­
ions about what type of city it
will want to be.
No matter
what is decided two things are
known for sure, most good de­
cisions will not be liked by a lot
of people and they will cost a lot
of money.
THE HEIM HOUSE
(
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BEAUTY SHOP
485 PORTLAND AVENUE
GLADSTONE, OREGON
97027
655-9277