Lane County commissioners don't vote on Emeralds stadium on day before Eugene council vote

Lane County Commissioners did not take a vote Tuesday on the proposed Eugene Emeralds' stadium and multi-use facility at the Lane County fairgrounds, the day before Eugene City Councilors are scheduled to revisit the bond measure to partially pay for the project and decide whether to keep it on the May ballot.

An agenda item was scheduled as an update and discussion, but Commissioner Heather Buch said some community members had reached out requesting a decision before the City Council item and she felt that was out of order.

"We are missing a lot of key information still," Buch said. "It would be a different situation if we were talking about the subject without a potential vote of the people in front of us, but the request for us to deny the will of the voters, of the citizens of Eugene, to vote on the Ems is not acceptable."

During Tuesday's update, County Operations Director Lorren Blythe added uncertainty to the stadium's funding projections that Emeralds' leadership shared Friday.

Blythe told commissioners that the livestock facility would have to be moved to make room for the stadium, as moving the multi-use facility out of the northwest corner would have a greater impact on other aspects of the fairgrounds. He also said costs had likely risen $1.8 million from a previous estimate, which was assessed in March 2023, due to inflation.

Some commissioners expressed reservations about the project, saying the proposed finances were a bad deal for the county and taxpayers.

County Commissioner Pat Farr contrasted the Emeralds, where owner Elmore Sports Group is putting $23.5 million towards construction, with the Hillsboro Hops. Team owners of the Hops have put forward $82 million for a proposed new stadium to comply with MLB standards.

"There's a big difference between what Lane County is being asked to put in and what Washington County has been asked to put in for the Hops," Farr said. The city of Hillsboro is the lead agency for the Hops stadium. The county is the lead for the Emeralds, but the private share of contribution for the Emeralds' remain lower.

Emeralds' supporters have said the Hops are an outlier, and Emeralds General Manager Allan Benavides has said Elmore Sports Group's contribution is higher than similar projects.

In the Northwest League, the Everett AquaSox also are looking to build a new stadium. The city of Everett's website says, "The owners of the Everett AquaSox are willing to sign a lease of at least 30-years. … The lease will be used to pay debt service and operational costs of the stadium."

D.G. Elmore, chairman of Elmore companies, told the Register-Guard that the ownership's contribution was what they could afford.

"Frankly we just can't afford any more," Elmore said.

He also responded to the criticism that taxpayer money would fund the stadium by saying the biggest share of the public money would be from car rental and transient lodging taxes.

"That is coming from people that are renting cars and staying in hotels in Eugene and in the county, and obviously most of those people are not local that are paying," he said. "The way I see it, it's not coming from taxpayers' pockets in town."

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

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Lane County commissioners don't block Eugene Emeralds stadium