I simply have one condition for the whole thing. Please make sure Bob Whitsitt is not involved in the team. We don't need another team of multimillionaire rapists, assaulters, spitters, drug addicts, malcontents and underachievers.

Andrew Marino
Beaverton

BEAN BALL
Hats off to Nigel Jaquiss and his report on Portland's attempt to land major-league ball. It was refreshing to finally see a balanced report on the actual subsidies required to lure Major League Baseball to Portland ["Field of Dreams...or Field of Schemes?," WW, Jan. 15, 2003]. Baseball supporters continue to cast a new stadium as economic development, but it is clear from the article that it is simply a massive corporate subsidy. I would like to point out that there is an additional cost to the stadium that Mr. Jaquiss failed to mention: $7.5 million per year in forgone property taxes because of the stadium's tax-exempt status (Legislative Revenue Office analysis of HB2941, 2001). This is $7.5 million per year that won't be going to schools, the city or the county. So much for supporters' claims that the stadium won't cost us a dime.

Jason Franklin
Northeast Rodney Avenue

MAJOR-LEAGUE HEADACHE
Questioning the value of a new ballpark in Portland is understandable, because that's the immediate issue. There are plenty of reasons to abort this scam. However, if the pols and public eventually buy the snake oil being peddled by MLB's hustlers, consider the next big issue: the team's operating costs and revenues. A few problems loom instantly.

MLB's attendance has declined since its pre-strike peak in 1993; 20 of 30 teams lost attendance last season. Average per-game attendance in 2002 was about 28,000, the lowest since 1996. TV contracts reflect the lessening appeal of the game, with ESPN negotiating cuts in its next contract and the network contract expected to tumble to about half its current level. At the same time, payrolls grow fatter: The median MLB payroll in 2002 was $75 million. Most teams with smaller payrolls were perennial non-contenders.

What does all this say about MLB's prospects here? Where will Portland's team obtain the revenue to field the competitive team that's critical for filling those seats in the new ballpark? Small market, weak economy, modest local TV/radio income, less revenue-sharing from national TV and from richer clubs: Everything points to a nickel-and-dime management style. Just what we need.

Don Lief
Southeast 58th Avenue

MLB NATION
Steve Baker is on the right side of the major-league baseball park issue [Mailbox, WW, Dec. 31, 2002]. But he needs to rethink what he considers to be the main problem.

The real problem taxpayers face in having these corporate welfare projects thrust upon them is not the alleged "extortion tactics of major-league owners," but the image-happy state and local government leaders who don't feel important enough unless they give us everything a "real" city or state should have.

That major-league owners try to cash in on this should come as no surprise. But owners and the players can survive without our tax dollars, and they know it. Voters in San Francisco and Los Angeles said "No" to stadium deals, and their sports worlds didn't end. Will Portlanders let another mixed-economy scam take place, or will we join the others until no more of these deals occur in this country?

Bob Tiernan
Northeast 162nd Avenue