The Hillsboro Hops open their home season tomorrow with the debut of a new stadium, marking a major shift for the team and the city.

Why it matters: The $150 million stadium underscores a long-term partnership between the Portland area's only Minor League Baseball team and Hillsboro.

Zoom in: The Hops' ballpark comes with a lot of new bells and whistles.

• It has 4,700 fixed seats and can accommodate up to 7,000.
• Unlike the old stadium, the new ballpark will feature shaded seating, and the sound and visual systems have been upgraded.
• There's also a concourse that wraps all the way around the field, a new premium club level, a beer garden and six dining options.

When the stadium isn't hosting ballgames, it will serve as a concert venue and event space.

Follow the money: Unlike some other sports venue upgrades, the new stadium was built using a mix of public and private funding.

• Roughly $112 million came from private funders, with another $41 million from a mix of city, county and state money.

What they're saying: "We love this community, all of us live here, we're raising families here," Hops president and general manager K.L. Wombacher told OPB.

• "We want to be the heartbeat of the region where ... people come for big events."

Zoom out: The old stadium won't just sit idle either. It will soon be the home field of the Portland Cascade, the newest softball expansion team in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League.

If you go: First pitch against Spokane will be at 6:35pm, with tickets starting around $23.

Tell a fan

Portland's Sellwood Bridge is the city's southernmost Willamette crossing — and the only one for several miles — making it a critical route for Southwest and Southeast residents and commuters alike.

The big picture: Opened in 2016, the Sellwood is the newest of the bunch, replacing an impressively high continuous deck truss structure built in 1925.

• By the early 2000s, the original span had deteriorated significantly, and it was the busiest two-lane crossing in the state, carrying more than 30,000 vehicles daily. It only had one sidewalk — insufficient for bicyclists and pedestrians — and no shoulder or median.
• Cracks in the concrete led to reduced weight limits, which diverted trucks and buses away from the bridge and led local leaders to drum up plans for a replacement in 2006.

Zoom in: Designed by San Francisco-based engineering firm T.Y. Lin International, the Sellwood as we know it now is a 1,976-foot-long steel-deck arch bridge — the only one of its kind in the city — made of cinnamon-colored steel.

• Plus: It's the sole Willamette crossing designed to survive a major earthquake. (We're waiting on you, Burnside!)

Follow the money: The bridge cost $324 million to build — about $17 million more than initially projected — and was paid for by city, county and state funds, as well as federal grants tied to transit infrastructure improvements.

The intrigue: During construction of the new bridge, the old span was lifted up and moved slightly north to serve as a detour bridge while the new one was built.

• The move took 14 hours and engineers used Dawn soap to slide the bridge off its supports onto the new alignment.

⚖️ Oregon joined a lawsuit challenging a recent executive order from President Trump that seeks to put restrictions on mail-in voting. (OPB)

🚛 Oregon stopped issuing temporary commercial driver's licenses to people who aren't citizens or permanent residents after the Trump administration threatened to withhold transportation funding. (The Oregonian)

📉 International arrivals at Portland International Airport dipped by more than 20% last year as foreign tourists look to other destinations amid the political climate and trade tensions in the U.S. (Oregon Capital Chronicle)

🌌 Antelope —the small Oregon town once home to the Rajneesh cult — is now home to the state's first lodging in a certified dark sky sanctuary, where the absence of light pollution makes for unparalleled star gazing. (KOIN)

Oregonians tend to leave a 19% tip or higher on average when eating out, per Toast's latest restaurant trends report.

The big picture: That's about the same as the nationwide average for tips left at full-service restaurants in Q4 2025, but higher than both our West Coast neighbors.

• "After a pullback in full-service restaurant tips in Q2 2025, the average has leveled out," Toast's Brian Koerber wrote in the report.
• Meanwhile, tips at fast food joints also held steady at 15.8%.

Zoom out: Delaware, West Virginia, New Hampshire and Indiana are home to America's best tippers, with diners leaving roughly 21% or higher on average.

• At the bottom of the list for overall tipping are California, Washington state, and Washington, D.C., where averages run under 18%.

Between the lines: The report is based on data from restaurants using the Toast platform.

• Cash tips aren't included.

The bottom line: When we asked back in 2023, nearly half of Axios Portland readers said they prefer to tip rather than pay a service charge.

• The fee is rising in popularity among restaurant owners who told us it guarantees health benefits and equitable wages for both front-of-house and back-of-house employees.