Portland, here comes MLS.
The Portland City Council voted, 3-2, in favor of a $114 million plan to build a new baseball stadium and renovate PGE Park in order to prepare to be the home of an MLS expansion franchise. The vote was seen as the biggest obstacle standing in the way of Portland's MLS expansion bid.
The vote itself means Portland is looking like a very good bet to be one of the two cities awarded an MLS expansion franchise in 2011.
The process leading up to the vote included an amendment that removed $15 million in government funding from the overall package. It remains unclear how that will affect the project.
Portland city commissioner Dan Saltzman cast the decisive third Yes vote for the measure, drawing cheers from Portland soccer fans at the council meeting in the process.
What do you think of the news? Excited to see Portland in position to join MLS? Still wondering what is going on in St. Louis?
Share your thoughts below.
TimK, PaulChicago and Fig: My thoughts exactly!
What part of “League commissioner Don Garber said in January that the city’s chances hinged on beefing up its investor base” don’t people understand? Talk about Hope Springs Eternal!
Today’s announcement doesn’t change the ownership structure one bit. A-B offered a rink-a-dink field in the middle of a flood plain. Some gift!
Actually, that’s not true. I saw plenty of SLU matches there in the late 80s. It’s a good place for college soccer (~4,000), but a MLS stadium….? I don’t think so.
The irony is that this place, the St. Louis Soccer Park, is twice as far from downtown St. Louis as Cooper’s planned stadium in Illinois. How this solves the remoteness question is beyond me!
Ossington, I believe the rationale behind the need for a Western and Eastern table is travel. In a nutshell (not saying I agree or disagree with it as I’m undecided):
The US and Canada are a lot bigger than countries with other soccer leagues so the travel strain is a lot worse. In order to mitigate this, you create conferences with cities closer to each other so you can have those teams play more games against each other.
Hope that didn’t come across as patronizing, that’s the reasoning as I understand it
im with rudy on this, i dunno why they wouldnt make it a single table at that point.
Put the shield as higher value and still have the play offs for the top 8 teams.
Problem solved.
(of course add St Louis and Montreal later when Saputo wisens up and the USL collapses into nothingness)
To add, PGE has also always been the city’s major stadium for high school football. If that continues, they’ll have to use FieldTurf or there won’t be any grass after a couple of weeks.
I live in the area, and I’m happy. But I think some people are going to end up disappointed with the stadium.
See, they’re going to have to share with Portland State University college football.
That means either FieldTurf or a very, very muddy field. There’s no way a grass field is going to hold up with college football in Oregon in September and October.
[Plus FieldTurf is probably the only way to avoid football lines in September and October.]
They’ll make the best of it, I’m sure, but be prepared for the inevitable whining that the field is not pristine.
Does it mean anything that MLSNet has a story about the STL news today and not the Portland decision? I am pulling for Portland, but have a sneaky feeling that something weird is about to happen.
All of the expansion markets have their pros and cons. I am thinking what it must be like for MLS to introduce their expansion group of Vancouver and Portland. Is that a dream come true for a league that wants to be major league? Already there is Columbus, Salt Lake, Kansas City and a second team in Los Angeles that nearly every casual sports fan in the United States does not understand. Even San Jose does nothing to excite the masses. Do you want to sell a Portland-Columbus championship game? Or a game of the week between San Jose and Kansas City? MLS needed Miami if only for the sizzle factor. It is much easier to talk to sponsors and television executives if you are dangling Miami. But they are out and now you have Portland and Vancouver in the lead. The St. Louis group pulled off an interesting move today with Anheuser Busch and if I was Don Garber I would be looking real hard and trying to bring that bid home. If MLS gets to 24 teams there is plenty of room for Portland, Ottawa and the rest like them, but right now MLS needs St. Louis (great soccer support) or should revive Miami.
Youll have some good news to report tomorrow Ives…U-20’s moved through and mexico won 5-1 in the friendly… so everyone can relax about the collaspe of Mexican soccer. There just going through a rough patch
best. logo. ever.
Posted by: sasoccerfan | March 11, 2009 at 09:00 PM
+1.
No city deserves it more than Portland.
I agree about the Timbers. What a good logo and history. It is the one USL club I agree with retaining the image of.
I am excited about this. Portland is a great city for soccer. And, I’m excited to get to a number in MLS that forces other cities to start investing in and building their USL clubs. I am not a person who believes businessmen will stand in the way of promotion and relegation in this country.
I believe that, by the time soccer is rooted deep enough in the country, that businessmen will be eager for the competitiveness in the venture.
And, once USL clubs all begin to have their own stadiums of 10K, which are made for soccer, we will be much closer to fulfilling this goal. Adding a few thousand seats to upgrade a USL facility will then be a possibility. But, of course there are other considerations as well that I won’t get into.
This could be a league0changing move by the MLS by awarding Portland and Vancouver franchises. This will give the MLS two guaranteed fanbases with financial backing. Not to mention (the most important thing), two downtown stadiums.
A brief look at STL would generate tears if they don’t get awarded a franchise. But the issue isn’t if they will get awarded a franchise, but when? Being that there are new developments with the stadium (one HELL of a development, however), it does point out that the bid needs some cleaning up. The next round will certainly be STL’s with MTL, NYC, MIA or Ottawa. You will get in STL fans…just be patient. MLS needs to do the safe thing…not the deserved.
MLS has wised up since it allowed Ken Horowitz into the league in ’98. It now understands the importance of having owners with deep pockets.
Even if STL can get its own SSS, that is no guarantee its owners have the financial muscle to run the team properly. An SSS is only one piece of the puzzle. The ownership is even more important.
I agree with the other posters. They must keep their current logo! It’s aggressive and straight forward look is timeless. It will easily become the most visually unique brand in mls.
If STL can get a SSS built, there is no way what so ever MLS passes on them. Not even the Miami bid had that. I wouldn’t get too far ahead in saying Vancouver is a lock for 2011
Congrats Portland! You deserve it.
Go where the money and fan base are MLS. If it is Portland and Vancouver- so be it.
I’ll watch on TV and have to be satisfied with a healthy,growing MLS because I live in South Florida and we are never getting a team nor do we come close to deserving one.
Geographical “footprint” is a luxury the MLS can ill afford when it is trying to be a growing entity while becoming financially viable simultaneously.
Joy to the World! Here we come. Go Timbers.
Ok does everyone realize that the St. Louis stadium wont be in the city where you can get a good crowd but instead will be in Collinsville in the corn fields!!
Must the MLS continue to make poor decisions about stadium placement and where teams should be
Way to go Dan (and the other two councilmembers)!
Ives you said
“MLS has already reportedly reached an agreement with the Portland expansion group to award Portland a 2011 expansion team if the stadium funding proposal is passed, leaving it up to today’s vote to decide the future of MLS in Portland.”
So, what is the real scoop?
I remember poor NASL attendence in St. Louis even in a small, somewhat atmospheric park. Am I missing something with all this confidence SL would not be Kanas City? SL university was a power back in the day so that cannot be the reason for the optimism. SL was a soccer town then too.
the timbers are a big reason my wife and i are looking to move to portland in the next year and a half. this reinforces my opinion that pdx is one of the best places to live in the usa.
NICE!!! They so deserve it more than other contenders like Miami who was a flop…big soccer community in the Portland area or just remember how the US team has always being well received…will open a true CLASICO or rivalry…(screw Chivas vrs gaLAxy)…when they face Seattle…
I’m as excited as if I just received the team and I live like 800 miles away. Can’t wait to see PGE transformed into a SSS, I believe it will be one of the best in the league.
Congrats to Portland!
best. logo. ever.
the other thing that would be awesome to see develop over the next decade is regional styles of play. Just as there are slight but distinct differences across regions in countries in Europe and Latin America, it would be a boon to soccer in the US for this to develop among regions here as well. Are you an AL guy or a NL guy? AFC or NFC? west coast hoops or bruising east coasters?
now are you an MLS eastern or Western conference guy? not much of a difference, eh? why not?
Just to add Both Portland and Vancouver bids have DEEP POCKETS. Cooper lacks the deep pockets. If st louis was really serious why did it take them down to the last min to get A-B involved.
Also note for Portland it was a one time shot. St louis always has the 2013 bid Portland did not.
For the Rose City pints up!
actually three teams in the NW makes a lot of sense, financially. that is six matches a year for each team that are rivalries, just as DC,NY,PH will have. the midwest gets CB,CH,TR; California has its three teams. having teams within charter bus distance, seriously reduces costs. MLS doesn’t really have a national presence yet, the way to get that is through regional growth, I think. Yes, this will make it harder for teams in Denver, KC and Salt Lake, but, well, they have (or will soon have) stadiums, and really should be looking to create their own rivalries.
LJ
No they aren’t. A-B only provided a SSS and doesn’t boost the the finical bid. St louis bid does not have deep pockets and the league wants ST louis bid to have deeper pockets.
If mls was really wanting to put MLS in the city 2011 they would either done portland/st louis or van/st louis if they weren’t going to put a team in portland at this point.
Add all three. Single table! Single table!
I have no problem with any city getting a team, as long as the city can properly support the franchise. But yes, I’m still wondernig what is going on in St. Louis.
RK-
Are you serious? That badge is awesome. I hope they don’t change it to something stupid like “Locamotiv Timber” or something.
Posted by: Miikemike
Absolutely. That’s the first thing I thought of when I saw that logo for this article.
MLS does care about where teams are geographically?
So why are they always talking about expanding their footprint fella?
St. Louis is in now, A-B is always the last remaining original sponsor of MLS and is lobbying hard for this to happen, Garber said he wants soccer in St. Louis and is only concerned about their owners pockets, which A-B just helped out a lot. I think Vancouver waits but that’s just a guess.
MLS doesn’t care where the teams are geographically and whats wrong with having 3 teams from the NW. Looks at the 3 cities Portland, Seattle, Vancouver its a geographically a 3 way rival. MLS would love that.
The NW derbies are indeed fantastic. The emotions at Sounder-Whitecap games were really something. As a general rule I have nothing but respect, admiration and genuine affection for our neighbors to the north, but I put all that aside come game time. For pure, naked (and in the case of Willie Johnston I mean naked), in-your-face play nothing compares. Watching Tommy Hutchison dribble through three-four players and then just stand, hands on hips, one foot on the ball daring any Whitecap to try and take it away from him as time elapsed…. Great stuff.
Off topic, I just got back from a hard hat tour of the Red Bull Arena. It’s going to be amazing. The 3-D simulations don’t do it justice. Everything is VERY close
Why gift one to Vancouver? Portland and St. Louis seem the best. Portland apparently just secured a SSS a St. Louis is set w/ a SSS while Vancouver will be playing in a retrofitted giant of a stadium. There is no need for 3 teams in the NW.
hooray for the taxpayers of Portland. Building a stadium for Hank Paulson’s boy.
I agree with tony this is a good thing!! I just hope that Portland can get the finances in order. Seems like its still up in the air and fully reliable yet. The vote definitely came down to the last vote! I think this creates great atmosphere in the MLS … not completely sold on St. Louis. I think may be next time when they join montreal 🙂
Also it is a great logo! keep it.
Ives,
Do you really think that Vancouver, Portland, or St. Louis should be left out? How valuable are all three of these bids?
I’ve always talked about Vancouver and Portland’s great ownership, great traditions, and great fan bases. But St. Louis has the fan base and determination for a successful franchise. And now, they’ve added clout with Anheuser-Busch. I’ve loved all three bids since the beginning, but I don’t want to leave any of them out and have them stay/go to USL.
Any chance MLS gives out at least one spot for 2012?
RK-
Are you serious? That badge is awesome. I hope they don’t change it to something stupid like “Locamotiv Timber” or something.
That’s one fugly yellow.
Good luck Portland, talk about rivalry potential! Everyone says MLS lacks atmosphere and passion, I’m confident having Seattle-Portland-Vancouver derby matches will remedy that!
are all the teams from up there going to be green?
Yeah, AB just “gave” STL Soccer United land for a new stadium, how does that affect things?
I would think it’s a little complicated to add two teams in the Pacific Northwest and the Western Conference. Why not choose one of Vancouver or Portland and add St. Louis if they can get their ownership and financial backing together?
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=626966&cc=5901
Anheuser-Busch is lending it’s support to the St. Louis bid from what i just read.
ESPNSoccernet
If Portland does indeed get a team, I hope they keep that logo. Classic.
ives the 15m was for a URD that Saltzman wasn’t happy about so they agreed to put it TBD and the 3 yes pretty much will work towards getting that 15m.
Portland FTW!
Happy about league growth. Upset at a possible oversaturation in the Pacific Northwest.