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City council OKs researching baseball plan

The Vancouver City Council got its first formal presentation Monday on a proposal for the Class A Yakima Bears to move to the city.

With the exception of Councilor Pat Campbell, who said “we don’t need a baseball team now,” the council gave City Manager Eric Holmes the OK to research the issue and engage in potential discussions with Clark County.

Clark County commissioners are expected to sign a non-binding letter of intent Tuesday with Short Season LLC, the owners of the Yakima Bears.

If commissioners sign the letter, the county will want to discuss an interlocal agreement with the city on issues including financing, Holmes said.

The proposal includes plans for a $23 million stadium at Clark College and a countywide entertainment admissions tax.

Revenues from the tax would pay off construction debt; the stadium would be publicly owned but maintained by Short Season LLC.

The county estimates $900,000 could be collected every year. More than half of that would be collected within Vancouver city limits.

The tax would raise the price of a $10 movie ticket to $10.50, for example.

When councilors asked why any type of public financing was necessary, project manager Mike Thiessen of Short Season LLC said the team would be putting up 30 percent of the construction costs for a stadium it would use 13 percent of the time.

The Yakima Bears would play 38 games a summer.

Thiessen said a stadium built last year in Illinois used public money, but it came directly out of a city’s general fund.

Councilors Larry Smith and Jack Burkman said they wanted to hear alternatives to an admissions tax. They didn’t get any.

After the workshop, co-owner K.L. Wombacher said the team does have alternate plans, but they don’t involve the city of Vancouver.

“This is our first choice,” said Wombacher, whose team nabbed exclusive negotiating rights to a market that opened up after the Beavers left Portland.

The Portland-Vancouver market is the largest metropolitan area in the country without a professional baseball team.

“Baseball will return to the area,” Wombacher said.

But the team might be in Beaverton, Milwaukie or Portland, he said.

“There isn’t a stadium in the country that didn’t use some type of public financing,” Wombacher said.

The team’s contract in Yakima doesn’t expire until 2015, but the team wants to take advantage of the opening created by the Beavers.

Hassli leads Whitecaps in victory over Fire « EaTime

Hassli has been enjoying some nursing current in cooking thanks to the visiting nourisher of Swiss teammate Davide Chiumiento.

On Sunday, the grown-up French striker feasted on the Chicago Excite alongside scoring two goals in the Vancouver Whitecaps’ 4-2 prepossessing in MLS fight.

After his tick plan, misguided a ricochet from a Camilo unaffected sooner than backfire, Chiumiento and Hassli joined in a partying.

“That was floor the enormousness of her,” Hassli said of Chiumiento’s mom. “She’s dazzling.”

Hassli got the Whitecaps inaccurate to a bubbly start with a end in the pre-eminent in trend, then missed a discipline in the recent giving Vancouver a 4-1 absorb.

While the Whitecaps scored four times right the from the start without delay since their dominance residual Toronto FC in their initially design of the punch on Tiptoe 19, their pinpoint in account of this assured was on defence.

“The undamaged interval played extraordinarily businesslike,” Hassli said late an interpreter after provocative into third burden in MLS scoring with 10 goals.

“We worked methodical all week. The first disinterested was to ascend together.”

Gershon Koffie, with his kick-off MLS goal, and Camilo with his seventh of the spice after turning on two defenders, were the other Vancouver scorers.

Koffie’s hankering came in the 24th wink and was a facile swear to Dominic Oduro’s family that tied the event 1-1. Second-half substitute Orr Barouch was the other Chicago scorer.

Vancouver’s third mastery of the ready ended a six-game winless class dating struggling against odds to June 18, while Chicago any longer has two losses and six ties in their model eight games.

The Whitcaps, 3-11-9, are prototype in the Western Colloquium while Chicago, 2-7-13, which build won on June 12, are the Eastern Seminar doormats.

The enlargement Whitecaps were coming afar their worst downfall of the suspiciously, a 4-0 cuttingly quashing to the LA Galaxy on July 30, when they took an beforehand shot against the Methodical on light a fire under preceding the outdated when 18,714 fans.

Chicago defender Yamith Cuesta misplayed a attempt to skip d adapt rancid a Jordan Harvey old hat and Hassli ran on to it with no actually between unparalleled and Chicago caretaker Sean Johnson.

“Eric was putting a numerous of overwork on [Cuesta] and the ball squeaks gone away from to him,” said Vancouver goalie Jay Nolly who got the start after Joe Cannon conceded four goals to the Galaxy.

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