Back in the dark ages of 1999, the city of Hillsboro underwent a massive project for parks and recreation when it announced a $7.5 million public stadium to be built in the—at the time—rural outskirts of the city off Highway 26. Once expanded into a full sports complex with auxiliary soccer fields, the stadium ended up with a full price tag of $10 million, and served its chief purpose as the home field for Century High School’s football program. I know, because I was there. I was third-string. But I marveled at the amount of work and money that had gone into such a spiffy public facility, with nice clean locker rooms, the meanest AstroTurf ever conceived, and seating for over 7,000 people (which was later expanded to 10,000).
That seemed impressive at the time, and to the fiscally conservative taxpayers it may have seemed extremely expensive and needlessly luxurious … in 1999, too. What a simpler time that was. Fast-forward to 2012, and the groundbreaking of the Hillsboro Ballpark, which filled out the southern side of the public land plot and rounded out the newly christened Gordon Faber Recreation Complex, named in honor of the Hillsboro mayor whose tenure saw the city double in size, the expansion of the MAX rail system’s Blue Line into downtown, and the building of the initial stadium. This new ballpark already had incoming tenants, as the Yakima Bears were moved to Hillsboro by Short Season, LLC and became the Hillsboro Hops for the 2013 season. The final cost of $15 million to the city of Hillsboro was met with mixed reactions from the public, but the faithful baseball fans of the Portland metro area all seemed relieved for a fix after the 2011 departure of the Portland Beavers.
Now, going into the fourth season, the park is Ron Tonkin Field. That moniker nets $105,000 per year towards the city’s operations costs, along with the $150,000 per year that the Hops pay on their 20-year lease. Seating capacity is roughly 4,500, and parking for the entire sports complex is around 2,000. If fans are riding the MAX out to the game, they will need to transfer from Orenco Station to a free shuttle to the stadium.
Whether this massive public facility gets your blood boiling as a taxpayer who doesn’t want to pay for a sports team’s home or if you are pleased to see such a large portion of the city limits being used on a community resource that families and school systems can enjoy (particularly during the nine months of off-season for the team), you can find discussions on the matter all over local news sites. Here, I’m just excited for the features and dimensions of the park for fans. It is certainly a step up in presentation and fan engagement from the Volcanoes Stadium off Interstate 5.
The stadium has all-weather covered seating in the reserve or box seating sections much like the original stadium, but also has berm seating that spans the entire outfield for more of a pastoral picnic ambiance. And there wouldn’t be much reason to call the team the Hops without a Bridgeport-sponsored beer garden off the end of the first base line. The field is almost entirely FieldTurf, which is smart for the city to keep general maintenance costs lower. The stadium boasts 325-foot dimensions for left and right field foul lines, with center field clocking in at 400 feet from home plate. This means all pro, minor-league, college, and high school standards are met, but only at the minimums. Suffice it to say, home runs are amply possible and general admission seating has another major advantage on top of the lower price and freedom to roam.
The first Hops home game of the season is June 20, with the team starting their season as visitors to the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes. If you don’t have the means to visit Seattle regularly or you are concerned about the Mariners’ performance so far, you could certainly get your baseball fix right here in the Tualatin Valley, and you’d be watching a championship team. If you do, I recommend the box seating along the first base line. It goes without saying that I certainly recommend Ron Tonkin Field.
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