Eugene takes first step toward $15M bond to help Emeralds' minor league baseball stadium

Alan Torres, Eugene Register-Guard
·4 min read
The conceptual design of the proposed 4,200 capacity Emeralds' stadium and multi-use facility at the Lane County Fairgrounds. Courtesy of construction companies Barton Malow and Lease Crutcher Lewis and architecture design companies Populous and Pivot Architecture.

Eugene city councilors voted unanimously this week to take the first step toward sending a bond measure for the proposed Eugene Emeralds stadium and multi-use facility at the Lane County fairgrounds to Eugene voters, pending conditions from Lane County and the Emeralds.

The Emeralds asked the city for $15 million toward the stadium. City Manager Sarah Medary and councilors have said the only way the city could afford that much would be through a voter bond, which councilors considered Wednesday.

Councilor Randy Groves said that while he's heard from people both in support of and opposed to the project, the communications he's seen to council from the public "have been overwhelmingly in favor" of the stadium.

"I believe using general fund dollars would be inappropriate, but at the same time, I think we've received enough feedback. It's worthy of putting this in the voters' hands and letting them tell us what they want to do," Groves said.

Councilors built in three conditions to the motion and said they would only send the stadium bond to voters after:

  • Lane County commits construction funds.

  • The Emeralds submit a "definitive plan" to fill the stadium funding gap.

  • The Emeralds submit a plan for stadium operations & maintenance that does not rely on city resources.

If those three conditions are met, city councilors will revisit the topic and officially vote on sending the stadium bond to voters.

"My concern has always been, why are we asking folks to increase their taxes for a project the county hasn't even committed to. We don't even have operating agreements or anything like that," Councilor Jennifer Yeh said. Still, she said she voted for the motion because "this doesn't mean where doing it, it just means we're getting it ready in case we want to."

In 2020, Major League Baseball took over Minor League Baseball and began to revamp the league. One of MLB's first big moves was to roll out a new set of standards for every stadium which includes things from expanded clubhouses, designated eating areas for players and better weight rooms to locker room water pressure and crew tractor width. MLB told the teams to be in compliance by the opening day of 2025.

Emeralds' officials say it's not feasible to upgrade PK Park to meet these standards. They and the Lane County government have been conducting planning work to construct a stadium at the Lane County fairgrounds.

In August, county commissioners voted to extend the contract for stadium planning but said they would not give the Emeralds enough money to close the $43 million gap to pay for the $100.5 million construction, which includes the cost of rebuilding the livestock arena.

The proposed funding model includes:

  • $1.5 million from the federal government.

  • $7.5 million from the state government.

  • Approximately $35 million from the Car Rental Tax and Transient Lodging Tax, two taxes Lane County voted to raise in September and that went into effect in January for activities that would drive tourism.

  • $13.5 million from the Emeralds. Councilor Alan Zelenka criticized this as "frontloaded rent" rather than capital construction costs but said he was still supportive of the city contributing through a ballot measure.

Lane County increased its Car Rental Tax and Transient Lodging Tax in 2022 and said the stadium was a likely candidate for the money but did not formally dedicate it, one of Eugene City Council's conditions.

"The Eugene Emeralds are thrilled with the unanimous support from the Eugene City Council to move to the next phase of discussion on the $15M bond effort," Allan Benavides, Emeralds General Manager, told the Register-Guard over text.

"We understand that there are still some questions and information that will be needed as we work through this process. We welcome those questions and will work with our partners to bring the information to the table," he said.

The added conditions did not satisfy Allen McWayne, one of the more vocal critics of the stadium.

Details of the lease, financial reports and Master Plan are unresolved. Councilors are aware that the stadium is expected to lose $200,000 annually and asked that the City be absolved of operating expense liability," he told the Register-Guard over email. "Overall, there seems to be too much uncertainty about this proposal to meet the legal staff’s February deadline (to get a bond on the May Ballot)."

Alan Torres covers local government for the Register-Guard. He can be reached over email at atorres@registerguard.com or on twitter @alanfryetorres.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Eugene takes first step toward $15M stadium bond for Emeralds