With about a week to spare, the Oregon Legislature approved $15 million in funding for a new Hillsboro Hops stadium — narrowly avoiding the team’s potential relocation.
The House and Senate approved the legislation Thursday to help the team build a new baseball stadium for the Hops right next to Ron Tonkin Field, where the team currently plays. The Hops are a High-A affiliate, the third highest level of minor league baseball, for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Major League Baseball had extended the Hops’ deadline to secure the funding for a new park from September 2023 to March 15, so the Hops managed to meet that requirement with only a few days to spare.
This 2023 rendering by design-team Mortenson, SRG and Populous, shows plans for a new Hillsboro Hops stadium, which the team says it needs to stay in their current location.
Courtesy of Hillsboro Hops
That $15 million was the final effort in what’s been a two-year plan for the Hops to finance the estimated $120 million needed for a new stadium. Team president K.L. Wombacher said the team had exhausted all other private and public funding options; had the Legislature not decided to allocate the Hops $15 million, the team could have been relocated or ceased to exist altogether.
“We would have to move to a city where a facility could be built or we would have to sell the team,” Wombacher said. “Fortunately, all that has been saved and we don’t have to worry about that anymore.”
The team is contributing $82 million, the vast majority of which comes in the form of revenue bonds backed by the revenue expected to be generated by the new stadium, Wombacher said, a risky investment since minor league baseball is a small-margin industry.
“We’re basically forgoing profit to finance the stadium with that $80 million,” Wombacher said. “It’s a massive risk, that’s for sure, to finance that large of an amount. I don’t know that it’s been done in the minor leagues before.”
The Hops also received $18 million from the city of Hillsboro in future lodging taxes, $8 million from Washington County, and $2 million from Explore Tualatin Valley, a local nonprofit that promotes tourism in the region.
While Ron Tonkin Field is only 12 years old, it’s no longer in compliance with MLB’s standards for minor league stadiums: It doesn’t have a visitors clubhouse, a locker room for female umpires or a weight training room. Wombacher said constructing a new facility was the team’s only option.
“This is a huge milestone for Hillsboro, Washington County and all of Oregon,” state Sen. Janeen Sollman, D-Hillsboro, said in a written statement. “This team and this project represents so much more than baseball, and today my fellow legislators made an investment in our community that will echo for many, many years.”
Not every legislator supports spending taxpayer dollars to support sports teams. Rep. Mark Gamba, D-Milwaukie, criticized the budgeting process for prioritizing the funding of stadiums while the state still faces “life-and-death” issues like homelessness and wildfires.
“Many important bills died on the cutting room floor,” Gamba said. “Our priorities come down to what we spend money on, not what we talk about in press conferences.”
Public financing of sports stadiums has been a controversial topic across the country, as professional teams have sought billions of public dollars to make their stadiums the most up-to-date in a competitive sports landscape. Some economists argue that the economic benefits of stadiums to a surrounding area are often overexaggerated.
During testimony at the Legislature, team officials at the Hops argued losing the team would cost the state millions of dollars in income tax generated from Hops employees, and the region would have lost a massive gathering place.
Construction on the new stadium will likely begin this summer, the team announced, with the first games at the new ballpark taking place in 2026. The city of Hillsboro will continue to operate and maintain ownership of Ron Tonkin Field.