Dr. Lynn Lashbrook, has spearheaded a 25 year effort to bring Major League Baseball to Portland, Oregon. In 2003, Lynn led the lobbying efforts that resulted in a $150 million construction bill for a new baseball stadium in Portland. Under his leadership, the group secured legislative action to subsidize a new stadium with ballplayers’ payroll taxes. Lynn has been consultant to a variety of groups making attempts to bring MLB to Portland including the Portland Baseball Group, Oregon Stadium Campaign, Oregon Sports Authority, and the most recent effort, the Portland Diamond Project. Over 25 years, Lynn has brought to Portland, numerous architects, HOK, Populous, nationally recognized baseball consultants, baseball attorneys, franchise consultants, MLB executives, government leaders, transportation and logistics experts, lobbyists, and city leaders. Lashbrook has an insight and expertise for MLB to Oregon that is unparalleled. Lynn has been privy to numerous site selection analysis.  Lynn understands the necessary criteria to attract an owner and a team, including funding mechanisms, market affordability, political will, transportation availability, acreage requirements, ease of location to the population, timing constraints, the importance of community involvement, and MLB diversity vision.

Lynn is President & Founder of Sports Management Worldwide, (SMWW), the first ever online sports management school with a mission to educate sports business executives. SMWW, under Dr. Lashbrook’s guidance, offers a global sports faculty with over 30,000 sports business graduates, from over 164 countries. In addition, Dr. Lashbrook is an NFL registered Agent having personally represented over 200 NFL clients including Oregon State University alumni and 2-time Super Bowl QB Matt Moore. Currently, Dr. Lashbrook represents Dallas Cowboys WR Kavontae Turpin. For the past 20 years, Lynn and his company have hosted annual conferences at the NHL Draft, NFL Combine, MLS Draft, NFL London Game, Paris Sports Business, and NBA Summer League Games. This includes the SMWW Baseball Career Conference at the Baseball Winter Meetings. SMWW offers over 40 sports business specific courses and 5 graduates degrees. Courses include those taught by MLB leaders in Baseball Scouting, Baseball Analytics, Baseball Agency, Baseball Player Development, and Stadium Management. SMWW faculty includes five MLB scouts and 2 former MLB GM’s.

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Dan Duquette is the former General Manager of the Baltimore Orioles. He was previously the General Manager of the Montreal Expos (1991–1994) and the Boston Red Sox (1994–2002). He is also the founder of the Dan Duquette Sports Academy. He has twice been named the Major League Baseball Executive of the Year by Sporting News (1992 with the Expos and 2014 with the Orioles).

Dan Evans is a former General Manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Dan has been in professional baseball for over three decades and has had decision-making roles with five MLB franchises throughout his career. He is currently a Major League Scout & Director of Pacific Rim Operations for the Toronto Blue Jays, mentor for Sports Management Worldwide’s “Baseball GM and Scouting” course, member of the Baseball Prospectus Advisory Board, and a Board of Director for the Rocky Mountain SABR Chapter.

Oscar Suarez is an active MLBPA certified agent with over 30 clients and SMWW’s Director of Baseball. The native of Havana, Cuba has a Masters in Accounting from the University of Denver and has managed the sports agency Suarez and Associates for over 26 years. Beyond the standard agent expertise in negotiation and endorsements, Suarez also assists his clients in other facets of their daily life including financial planning, real estate consulting and preparation for their post-playing day’s career. His clients include MLB players such as Armando Reynoso, Elmer Dessens, Ricardo Rincón, Francisco Cordova, Juan Castro, Joakim Soria, Ed Vosberg, Dennys Reyes and Oscar Villarreal.

Hank Jones has worked the Pacific Northwest region for nearly 40 years as a trusted scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers, helping the organization win two World Series (1981, 1988) and succeeding under four different ownership groups, seven general managers and five scouting directors. Often when there is an organizational regime change, the scouting staff is turned over to new members. But not Hank. His reputation in MLB is beyond reproach, and every new GM and scouting director wanted Jones to stay on their staff.

Jeff DeBois is a lifetime Real Estate Developer on Porltand’s Eastside with Planet Realty. Born into a home builder business, Jeff continued the family tradition with a college education on the business side of real estate. Jeff Debois knowledge of East Multnomah County geography, demographics and history, complemented by his knowledge of commercial real estate and property development is unsurpassed. Over the years, Jeff has been involved at various levels of East Multnomah County affairs. As part of a third generation of Debois’s to give back to the community, thru school boards, volunteer work, new high school construction, and even the local high school artificial turf fund raising committee. In true Oregonian fashion, Jeff followed in his family footsteps and raised his children (and now grandchildren!) in East Multnomah County schools.

Now, after over 35 years of real estate transactions and millions of dollars expertise, with numerous awards, Jeff is sharing his combined passion for sports and improving the quality of life in his local community, in the effort to bring MLB to Oregon. Jeff personally discovered a hidden gem of 240 acres of Opportunity Zone that will be a home run for an MLB owner and a win-win for Rockwood, Oregon, the neighborhood Jeff was born.

Craig Byrd is a longtime supporter of bringing baseball to Oregon. Craig is a financial advisor servicing the Pacific Northwest.