Suitable Worlds Site

Ever since Doug Logan mentioned bidding for and and hosting the 2015 Worlds as a goal, the T&FN message board has been discussing the possibility (or the impossibility, depending on your viewpoint).  As of right now, there is no facility anywhere in the country capable of hosting it.

 

Today, westcoasttiger came up with an intriguing idea:

 

How about Portland instead? Discussions are on-going about retro-fitting the current football/soccer/baseball stadium PGE Park to a world-class soccer/football stadium with expanded seating. Now granted the talk is of a 30,000 seat venue but IF some forward thinking people would step in (Phil Knight is in town) the idea could fly. If the Worlds in 2015 were the carrot I know this could help Merrit Paulson (son of our current Sec of Treasury Henry Paulson) in his efforts to bring a MLS expansion team to town.

The major objective is a fitness club that is located at the south end of the facility currently but with the right efforting this issue could be handled (Nike buy the club or offer it space under the new seating in a state of the art training situation with use of the track when events were not taking place. Some of the seating could be adjustable on rails such as in France so that the track would not hinder sight lines for the soccer/football fans on at least one side of the stadium in which a new seating structure would need to be built anyway as well as in the south end of the facility. If you google map Portland you can easily see the field and track for those that are curious.

Portland lacks a major football stadium so that is another selling point and while the rest of the economy suffers Nike announced it had a 9% improvement in its last quarter just today.

Some of this might be a pipe dream but so are all the other ideas being discussed and putting in this facility could make Oregon even more of a player in international track.

There is a state of the art high school track facility across the street that could serve as a warm-up facility and there is a mass transist line that runs directly beside stadium currently with thousands of hotel rooms within a half-mile walking radius and plenty of restaurants and entertainment.

 

I think we have a winner.  There are significant other issues to work out, but I don't think a better site could be found.