Hillsboro Hops
Securing a new home for a community treasure
The Challenge
After a decade of cementing itself as a beloved staple of Washington County and Greater Portland, the Hillsboro Hops Minor League Baseball team faced a sticky situation: They needed to secure funding for a new ballpark that met modern Major League Baseball (MLB) standards, or be forced to vacate the area.
The good news was that the team’s owners stepped up with a private commitment for nearly 70% of the total project to keep the team.
With six months to secure the remaining funding from state and local municipalities before a looming March 2024 MLB deadline, WPR was brought onto the team.
Our charge? Devise and execute a communications strategy to buoy support across the community that would keep the Hops in Hillsboro for decades to come.
The Goal & Strategy
Through stakeholder conversations, WPR landed on resonant “more than baseball” messaging centered around the ballpark experience and the integral role of the Hops to the Hillsboro community.
We then worked with our partners in government relations to identify advocates who could speak to the team’s cultural, economic and philanthropic impacts. The third key piece was mapping out communications milestones against the abbreviated 32-day legislative session to ensure they landed with optimal impact to move our key audiences to act.
We also created key communications pieces, including a web page on the new project, FAQs and multiple fact sheets, that the Hops and their advocates relied on throughout the campaign.
The Results
The efforts resulted in supportive opinion pieces published in The Oregonian, Portland Tribune and Hillsboro News-Times; a packed press conference that drew widespread coverage, including feature stories on all four Portland TV broadcast stations; and with the bases loaded, a dramatic ending: funding commitments from the City of Hillsboro, Washington County and the State of Oregon.
The new ballpark is now fully funded, with construction slated to conclude for the 2026 season, ensuring a bright future for the Hops and Hillsboro.
In a project with many moving players, pieces and political sensitivities, WPR was an adept and critical partner to getting us successfully over the finish line. They created a strategy that drew on a chorus of diverse voices to advocate for our team’s unique place in the community. They landed us consistent media coverage that reinforced our value when we needed to be part of the public conversation. And they were responsive and fun to work with throughout the six-month sprint – everything we were hoping for in a communications partner!”
K.L. Wombacher
President and General Manager, Hillsboro Hops
