Joe Buzas, a Pennsylvanian who's owned minor-league baseball teams for decades, said Wednesday he's never felt wanted since he bought Portland's Triple-A franchise. "I've had seven rough years in Portland," Buzas said.
"Not as far as making money," he said. That he's done. "Just road blocks," he said, relating tales of how he had to move four Beavers games to Spokane once because Civic Stadium was to be used for a concert, and how when the Trail Blazers wanted to use the stadium for an outing for sponsors, he was moved out."They didn't ask; they told us," he said, speaking about the Merc Commission that governs city facilities. "I lost $35,000," he said. And they didn't even say, "Thank you," he added.
Buzas said when he bought the club from the city, businessmen told him the city didn't want the team there.
When Portland entertained the idea of having a Canadian Football League franchise this summer, Buzas figured his team would take a back seat to the CFL in June, July and August, so he began seeking another home for the Beavers.
Around Portland, Buzas is said to be a penny pincher who doesn't promote the team. "He's not a very popular man in town," said one news reporter.
It's been no secret over the years that Buzas was looking to leave. He announced a move to Winnipeg several years ago. "That was a show, really," he said. The Pacific Coast League turned down the move. "It was way out of the realm of the Coast League," he admitted.
This planned move to Salt Lake City for the 1994 season, Buzas said, is "deadly serious."
But he's quick to add, "It's not definite."
That's because Salt Lake City first has to build a suitable stadium, one that is still in the talking stages, and because Buzas has to acquire rights to the territory from the Salt Lake Trappers, who have been in Salt Lake City since 1985.
"They could get nasty," Buzas said.
But that is unlikely. The rookie-league Trappers have known for a long time that they've just about worked themselves out of the market by being too successful. In 1992, they finished ninth out of some 250 minor-league teams in average attendance, and their total attendance of 217,263 was 41st in all the minors even though they're short-season. They want compensation for what they've accomplished but insist their asking price must be reasonable or they would lose if the matter went to the national association for arbitration.
Buzas said he doesn't want to go to arbitration - where either the high or the low figure is picked and there is no compromise - because "the only ones who make money are the lawyers."
Trapper principal owner Jack Donovan accepts the idea of Triple-A moving in. "I'm thrilled for everyone who has put time and effort into it (the move)," he says.
The deal to move to Salt Lake City - a document Buzas signed earlier this week and which Mayor Deedee Corradini announced Wednesday - is also subject to PCL approval, though that would likely come quickly because the city is a transportation hub for all PCL travel even now. Russ Parker, who moved the last PCL franchise out of Salt Lake City to Calgary (the Cannons), says Utah's returning to the PCL makes sense geographically.
"The Coast League would have to love having Salt Lake back in," says Donovan. "What team doesn't want to be in a league where you have the shortest travel of all?"
The deal between Buzas and Corradini is for a 10-year period with Buzas paying $200,000-a-year rent plus purchasing the Trapper territory. That would be one of the highest rents in the minor leagues, but he said, "It's not much. I'm getting concessions (food and beverage, etc.), which I never had in Portland." He said he also will get parking receipts and agreed to never charge more than $2.
The city's end of the bargain includes building a 12,000-seat stadium that meets professional baseball's stringent requirements and complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The signed agreement says the stadium must also have skyboxes or luxury suites, and that the incoming team would like to have grass seating for overflow crowds.
The agreement also called for secrecy on the part of Salt Lake officials to protect the team's lame-duck 1993 season, but Buzas quickly admitted his team was the one involved when asked by the news media. "It'll ruin me in Portland, but I'm a big boy. I can take it," he says.
Buzas has just exercised a one-year option on the lease in Portland for the 1993 season.
If the Salt Lake City deal fails, he says he'll stay in Portland.
Until a few weeks ago, Salt Lake City was negotiating with John Dikeou, owner of the Denver Zephyrs of the American Association. His team was displaced by the major-league Colorado Rockies and hit snags with its planned move to New Orleans. Those talks failed to produce an agreement.
The Beavers are the AAA affiliate of the Minnesota Twins.