By KVAL News
EUGENE — Things don’t look good for the future of Emeralds Minor League Baseball in Eugene at the Lane County Fairgrounds.
This time last week, a ballot measure to provide bonds to fund a multi-use stadium at the fairgrounds failed to pass in the May primary election. The vote was a lopsided 66 percent no to 34 percent yes.
Emeralds general manager Allan Benavides says the results definitively closes one door on a years-long search for a new home.
“Had it been really close we would’ve questioned whether we should’ve done this or that, and it was a fairly wide margin, and I’ve accepted it, and we’re moving on,” said Benavides.
The Ems have called Lane County home since 1955.
New Major League Baseball standards for Minor League Baseball fields make PK Park, home of the University of Oregon Ducks where the Ems currently play, beneath the standard for minor league professional baseball.
A new stadium at the fairgrounds would’ve cost about $90 million with a guaranteed $15 million from the state plus federal and team funding already in the bag pending additional matching funds from the city pf Eugene and Lane County,
The city of Eugene couldn’t afford the bill and put it before voters, but it was money voters weren’t willing to part with.
Now, the team is having aggressive conversations with three new communities ahead of a move with intentions of ending their prepaid lease at PK Park before 2030.
“We have to pay additionally each year for the additional games, and we have to pay for the visiting trailers, and it’s really expensive for us to operate here, and so we need to get out as soon as we can,” said Benavides.
Lane County Commissioner Pat Farr said his instinct is that the county will not be pursuing a new stadium any further since he says the county’s well has run dry in terms of funding sources for the stadium.
“I think the thing I’m most bummed about is the fans, the community, the loss they’re going to have once the team moves and the vacuum that it’s going to create. Frankly it’s over,” said Benavides.
Taxpayers for Transparency launched a campaign against the stadium saying it would cost taxpayers $100 million, but Benavides says those numbers were inflated.
Benavides says they’ll build the new stadium for less than $80 million in their final location.
I wish the city would stop trying to destroy the fairgrounds for their various pet projects. The area is residential with great neighborhoods. They want to destroy all of that for a lousy buck.