Talk of compromise, new deal delays vote on Coliseum’s fate

The fate of the 48-year-old Memorial Coliseum will wait another week as Portland’s City Council considers alternatives to a plan that would demolish the building to build a new baseball stadium in the Rose Quarter.

Portland’s City Council has postponed for a week its decision on the proposed Major League Soccer deal, including the site of a new Triple-A baseball stadium.

The council was scheduled to approve Wednesday morning a development agreement with MLS team owner Merritt Paulson and decide where to build the stadium, possibly on the site of Memorial Coliseum in the Rose Quarter.

After architects and others mounted a campaign to prevent the coliseum from being torn down to make way for the stadium, the council postponed the votes until April 29 to search for a compromise.

At a Monday afternoon press conference, Mayor Sam Adams said the delay was in response to the “sincere” concerns raised by coliseum supporters that the 48-year-old building should be preserved.

Adams said city planners will work with Paulson and the Portland Trail Blazers to determine if a Triple-A ballpark can be built in the Rose Quarter without requiring that the coliseum be demolished.

– Excerpt from the Portland Tribune, April 21, 2009