Plan to bring MLS to Portland wouldn’t turn a profit until 2015, analysts predict

The company seeking the city’s financial help to renovate PGE Park to bring major league soccer to Portland and to relocate the Beavers minor league baseball team to a new stadium, released financial projections Tuesday that show the combined operation wouldn’t turn a profit until 2015.

Greg Peden and Don Mazziotti, consultants representing owner Merritt Paulson, presented the figures to a city task force analyzing the proposal.

The balance sheet shows a projected net loss of $1.8 million for soccer and baseball teams in 2010, the first year of operations. The losses continue for another five years before revenues eventually overtake expenses.

Mazziotti and Peden were prepared to make a detailed presentation on the financial projections, but they didn’t get far as task force members peppered them with questions. The task force is charged with making a recommendation to the City Council on March 11, to meet a deadline set by Major League Soccer for granting a new team franchise.

– Excerpt from The Oregonian, January 7, 2009