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These excerpts come to us from the Oregonian.
The cost to land a Major League Soccer expansion team in Portland is quickly climbing.
The new entry fee: at least $40 million. That's up from the $30 million MLS is charging ownership groups in Seattle and Philadelphia to bring their cities franchises in the next two years.
The league's increased buy-in price is putting pressure on potential franchise owner Merritt Paulson to secure a deal before costs escalate further. The owner of the Portland Timbers and Portland Beavers sports teams plans to present his full proposal for MLS to city leaders as early as June.
Up first: bringing the city-owned PGE Park to MLS standards. Adding grandstand seating on the stadium's vacant east side, plus more restrooms and concessions, among other changes, could easily add up to more than $20 million, an amount MLS commissioner Don Garber said during his last official visit to Portland in October "might be optimistic."The larger expense would be building a new ballpark for the Beavers, a Triple A baseball team. MLS wants its teams to play in stadiums designed for soccer. So the Beavers would need to vacate PGE Park within five years of an MLS team starting play there, Paulson said. After narrowing his shortlist of potential sites to three within city limits, he said a 9,000-seat Beavers stadium probably would run north of $35 million.
Paulson said he wouldn't expect to complete an agreement with MLS until after the November election.
Read more about it here.
We are pretty keen on Portland, always have been, but especially with the entry of Seattle into MLS.
We believe that Portland is perhaps the "perfect storm" and perfect spot for expansion.
They already have the knowledgeable, passionate fan base, some would argue the most passionate in the USA. They have little competition for the pro sports dollar in the city and their team right now is sitting atop USL-1. It does not hurt that they are huge rivals to Seattle and have been for 30+ years.
Additionally, they already have a storied downtown stadium with the right capacity for MLS with room for future expansion.
Two years ago someone posted this soccer-specific conversion of PGE park on BigSoccer.com.
FUTURE (Capacity 25,000):
And here is how PGE Park looked during the 1999 Women's World Cup.
Thanks Alison for the pic.
Portland is not all about numbers though, it's about passion and culture.
Who knows, maybe Scotland's Celtic might be interested in helping promote a 2nd division side to MLS? Same colors nearly.
Don Garber, Merrit Paulson, Green is the color. Make it so.
Video of the Timbers Army in action:
11 comments:
Wow. Get these guys in. I remember Portland hosting the WCQ against Costa Rica in the run-up to France '98, and being mightily impressed with them. Since then, I've had the opinion that Portland needs to be in. The league needs more clubs with passionate supporters, and these guys are the real deal.
Good on ya, Portland! Get after it.
if you want a better picture of what it would look like, try to find a picture of the womens world cup in 1999, i think they played a match there and had stands where you were talking about.
Is Portland sophisticated and cosmopolitan enough? Does Portland have the requisite number of Portuguese restaurants, ex-pat South African real estate moguls and Sikh police officers? The answer: NO. So, Portland is OUT!We all no that MLS is no longer an American league. So, it should concentrate on Vancouver and Halifax and Quebec City and Edmonton and Winnipeg and Missisauga and Thunder Bay and Moncton and Uranium City and ignore those faceless "just American" cities that might take to long in coming up with the scarole.
Another thing. Expect all that Portland fields and all future MLS fields to be field turf because MLS has pretty much contradicted itself but allowing it even though everyone hates is.
Here is a photo of PGE Park as configured for the 2003 Women's World Cup:
http://soccercityusa.com/oct2-pano2m.jpg
I just worry that getting the city/state to put up their part of the money needed to make this happen is going to be difficult.
Hee hee he said BEAVER.
But seriously an MLS side in Portland would be awesome. A great NW rivalry with Seatle.
Portland Paul Bunyons!!
Thanks for the pic Alison.
don't care much for your team by any stretch of the imagination. but i would like to see you guys up in MLS. the rivalry would be awesome at that level. SOUNDERS 'TIL I DIE!!!
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Correction:
There has not been a Seattle-Portland rivalry for 30+ years. Portland came into the NASL in 1975 after Seattle and Vancouver were already in the league, and they left in 1982 before Seattle and Vancouver. The Timbers did not return again until 2001. The true northwest soccer rivalry is Seattle-Vancouver. Portland is way down on the totem pole and pretty much ignored by both Seattle and Vancouver fans. The sad thing is that some of their fans latched onto the idea of creating a one-sided rivalry in the last couple years in order to make their legacy look bigger than it is. The truth is, without Seattle and Vancouver to get angry about, because they actually win, the current trendy Portland fan scene wouldn't exist. MLS needs Vancouver.
How did Vancouver do with holding an NBA team? Oh, yea, they couldn't. Seattle just did the same. Portland isn't ever given chances with sports franchises. Sad really. Timbers Army proves it would sell out each night.
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