In May, the owners of the Yakima Bears, a short-season Single-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks, announced interest in relocating to Vancouver, WA. The proposed move would include remodeling or replacing the stadium at Clark College and ending up with a 3,500 (or so) seat park that would be used both by the Bears and by Clark College. With lawn seating, capacity could be up to 6,000. Since that time, some progress has been made. But like the situation with Portland's Beavers, citizen reaction, at least on the Vancouver Columbian website has been decidedly mixed.
Part of the controversy is the addition of a 5% county-wide entertainment admissions tax to help pay for the stadium. The tax would be levied on entertainment such as movie tickets, the county fair, motocross events, etc. I believe the tax would not be imposed on events of non-profit organizations, such as the Vancouver Symphony.
There are many articles about the progress of acquiring the Bears. Here are a few links to get you started. If you read the comments from readers and compare with what you remember from discussions about the Beavers, you may experience deja vu all over again.
Exclusive Baseball Talks OK'd By County
Nonprofit Backs Bid to Lure Baseball
Toss a Few Questions at Baseball Discussion
Tuesday's Public Forum on Baseball Cancelled
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