|
Oregon Stadium Campaign
News
Portland, Play
Ball!
August 21,
2003 :: Issue #7
MLB Jobs Bill Clears
Oregon House, Final Senate Vote As Soon As Friday
With the
passage of the MLB Jobs Bill in the Oregon House Wednesday afternoon, the
campaign to bring Major League Baseball to Oregon is fast approaching its most
critical vote on the floor of the Oregon Senate. Combined with the support of
Oregon Governor Kulongoski, the victory in the House means that the MLB Jobs
Bill is now just one step away from vaulting Oregon into position to be the
home of our own Major League Baseball franchise in April of next
year!
While we have made repeated requests asking you to contact
legislators (and you have continually answered the call!) during the many
months of this legislative session, please be aware that we are now at our
final crucial juncture in the legislature and the fate of MLB in Oregon will be
determined in the very near future. We ask for your help one last time in
urging the Oregon Senators below to pass the MLB Jobs Bill, now designated SB
5.
We also ask that you reach out to your friends, family and colleagues
by forwarding on this e-mail and requesting their help in convincing the Oregon
Senate to bring jobs, economic development and Major League Baseball to Oregon.
Your call or e-mail can make the difference! We can't thank you enough for the
critical role you have played and will continue to play in this
campaign!
Please take just a few moments to
contact these Oregon Senators:
Jobs, Jobs and More Jobs
In two separate
showings of support, labor and industry leaders each strongly proclaimed their
endorsement of the MLB Jobs Bill during the past week. Tim Nesbitt, President
of Oregon AFL-CIO and Bob Shiprack, leader of the Oregon State Building and
Construction Trades Council, joined with unemployed Oregon ironworkers in
urging legislators to put trade workers throughout the state back to work by
passing the MLB Jobs Bill and creating at least 1,500 new jobs. The building
and trades industry currently suffers from an unemployment rate of nearly 40%.
One of the unemployed workers explained that if he doesn’t find work soon,
he’ll have to move his family out of the state where he’s lived all
of his life.
And just yesterday, the American Bridge Company in
Reedsport sponsored a full-page ad in the Umpqua Post newspaper, detailing the
job creation that is expected for the central and southern Oregon Coast as a
result of the construction of a new ballpark, and reminding everyone that more
than 600 Oregon businesses are backing the effort to bring MLB to our state. In
an accompanying guest editorial, Carson T. Carney of American Bridge wrote,
"The moment a Major League Baseball team is headed to Oregon, 1,500
construction workers are on the job. American Bridge anticipates that many of
those jobs will be created right here in Reedsport and that's why we're
campaigning for this effort."
Calling all Little
Leaguers!
The Oregon Stadium Campaign will hold a media event
at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, August 22 at the State Capitol, featuring an update on
the campaign and several Oregon little leaguers conveying their hopes for an
Oregon MLB team. If you have little leaguers who might like to participate,
please contact us at Info@OregonStadiumCampaign.com!
The Time is Now!
If you want to see MLB in
Oregon, now is the time to contact the state Senators listed above. Look no
further than
last week's editorial in The Oregonian for evidence of just
how close we are to landing the Expos in 2004. Thank you so much for your
support of the Oregon Stadium Campaign and thanks for this one last push!
The proud founding
sponsors of the Oregon Stadium Campaign are:
Pacific Power,
Platt Electric,
The Confederated Tribes of
Grand Ronde, Oregon
Sports Authority,
Portland Baseball
Group and Moffatt/Rosenthal. |
|
