Photo by Andrew Katsampes/ISIphotos.com
By JOSE M. ROMERO
All that is left to do at re-modeled Jeld-Wen Field is the cleanup ahead of Thursday's home opener for the Portland Timbers against the Chicago Fire before an expected sellout crowd of some 18,600.
The Timbers practiced on their new home turf and inside their transformed home stadium Tuesday, a whirlwind day for team owner Merritt Paulson. Excitement and anticipation for the first MLS game in the Rose City are building, and Paulson, who cited all of the work that went into making MLS happen in Portland, is calling Thursday a day of celebration for the city.
"It's huge. I don't know if there's a superlative that actually captures it for me," Paulson said. "It's going to be overwhelming.
"The home opener is, in many ways, the start of the season."
The MLS season has started for the Timbers with three road games that have produced an 0-2-1 record. Not ideal, perhaps, but the Timbers will play four of their next five MLS matches at home, plus a U.S. Open Cup play-in game in between those.
Only limited single-game tickets remain for some home games, and there is already a waiting list for 2012 season tickets. The stadium, with its new video board and east grandstand, will be ready, but there's no time for a practice run. The first-ever event at newly branded Jeld-Wen Field is Thursday's game.
"It's kind of like a fire drill," Paulson said.
Paulson looks forward to being able to sit down, finally, and watch the action with friends. In his perfect world on Thursday, everything goes well in the stadium and the Timbers win.
"This is more than just three points for me," Paulson said. "It's the culmination, but it's the beginning, because it's about the long-term health of the franchise.
"I certainly feel we can be competitive this year and in future years."
Midfielder Jack Jewsbury is one of the newest Timbers, but he's starting to settle in. The veteran will move his wife and 2-year-old daughter to Oregon in the coming weeks.
"It was time for a change, whether for me or for both (he and Sporting KC)," Jewsbury said. "They (the Timbers) made the transition as easy as it could be."
Jewsbury and teammate Steve Purdy, who knows all about how Portland will support its soccer team after having played for the USL Timbers, can't get away from the buzz around town about the team. It's found at the supermarket or in coffee shops from the Pearl District to suburban Beaverton and beyond.
"People see Timbers gear, they definitely want to come up to you and talk about it," Jewsbury said. "Now it's just up to us to feed off the energy the crowd brings."
There are TV ads and billboards and much more exposure and promotion of the team than there was in USL times. But the product is selling itself.
"I think we're going to have a great home-field advantage," Purdy said. "They (the fans) will bring a lot more energy and a lot more noise."
Purdy said communication has been and will continue to be key at Jeld-Wen Field. Even last season, with a few thousand fewer fans in the stands at the former PGE Park, it was hard to hear teammates talking.
That could affect visiting teams, and even the Timbers, who haven't played in Portland before.
"Even some of us, we don't really know what's going to hit us on Thursdsay," Purdy said. "The Timbers Army (supporters group) will bring all that energy. It's going to be loud the whole game."
The players have learned from their first three games as they try to build chemistry and turn hard work into results.
"We learned we need to be focused," Purdy said. "We're not playing our game as much as we were in preseason. Playing away in MLS, we have to take advantage of any point we can get on the road.
"It's very important to show well and give a good performance (Thursday). There's a lot of hype. … If we focus on the little details, that's probably the most important thing as a team. Everything else will come. We feel we'll put on a good performance."
Jewsbury said he's excited about the direction the team is headed.
"(Fans') expectations are high and our expectations are high for ourselves," he said. "We're a group of guys that want to fight and battle and get to the playoffs."
“Yes, because Pizza Hut Park is far more exciting than Camp Nou”
Umm, yeah sure, Mikey. You made a complete sentence but I can’t possibly figure out what it means or what it is in response to.
Fair point…hope you’re enjoying your mom’s basement.
OUCH
I hate to break it to you guys, but for those of us not in the Pacific northwest, Seattle and Portland are no different when it comes to clichés.
I live in Orego and I just finished using my chainsaw before reading this article. All the Seattle fans remind me of Mexicans who troll the USA articles looking to cause trouble. Still, I think Seattle set a high bar for expansion team support and I look forward to Portland showing it’s support as well.
I support RBNY, but I’m happy to see all the passion in the Northwest. And I’m fascinated with the idea of a guy with a chainsaw milling around the supporters section.
profit?
Funny that when people talk Sounders, they usually talk soccer. When people mention Timbers, it usually ends up being about Sounders.
see: Portlandia
You’ve covered every cliché for which Portland is known… good job
ESPN2 @ 8PM PST.
I laughed.
Mikey, you’ll be surprised to learn that people can be called different things depending on how they act.
Why are so many Seattle fans commenting on the Portland article? Shouldn’t you guys be riding your fixed-gear bikes from your parents’ house to the coffee shop where you’ll watch an unemployed 27 year old play simple chord progressions and sing off key while calling it high art?
I wrote it down.
Now what?
You guys stole the chainsaw from the Coloradoans
ACES
Yes, because Pizza Hut Park is far more exciting than Camp Nou
that explains why you’re only betting with ten bucks…
I like that when the Sounders got thousands of new fans they were “customers”, but when Portland gets thousands of new fans they are “fans”
3-1 Chicago. Write it down.
That’s a ridiculous claim — even if the TA walks the walk 100% when it comes to the anti-hooliganism policies that it proclaims (most SGs are at least somewhat lenient with their members, in my experience), not every ticket-holding fan is a TA member. It’s not like the thugs who beat Bryan Stow half to death at Dodger Stadium the other week were card-carrying members of the Blue Crew.
Living in the Bay Area.. I think San Jose is the wrong place in the Bay Area for a team. SF itself would do better. The largest “soccer” demographic is in the eastbay pleasanton/walnut creek area..and it’s pretty healthy in the North Bay. SJ is not very accesssible to these groups.
Agreed 100%. Both places need real grass, without something will always be missing.
Ummmm, what?
Congrats to Portland. Love seeing new stadiums in MLS.
jsut checked espn to see if there would be some coverage of the match tonight. zilch. for a network who playing the match, they sure don’t seem to care… even a little. pretty lame.
in 20 years when MLS is flying high, i hope espn gets cut out.
+1 here as well. Passion doesn’t excuse stupidity.
Not a Timbers fan in the slightest .. but for all of you naysayers.. all your mouths will be agape tonight. Portland may not win a game this season but their fans are gonna raise the bar so f’n high that watching most other MLS games on the tube will become the newest cure for insomnia
+1
Enjoyable thread.
Remember folks, Portland, Ore. is:
“America’s Unhappiest City:”
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/02/0226_miserable_cities/2.htm
Second on the recently released “Misery index” of American cities: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/03/29/where-are-americans-most-miserable/?KEYWORDS=misery+index
They took those axes and chainsaws away after the commercials were shot so the Portlandians wouldn’t hurt themselves.
I find all this banter to be ridiculous. It’s dumb for my fellow Seattle fans to bring up the Little Brother argument, or to say that Portland never won anything before moving up to MLS. And it’s dumb for Portland to say that Sounder fans are “customers” and that their supporter group is more organic than ours. None of that really matters.
What is great is that Portland has a team, and if I want to go watch an away game where the fans and players will be highly invested in the outcome, I can. I hope Portland sells out every game and has strong crowd support. Seattle has it, and it makes the games amazing and fun. I hope other teams in MLS get to experience it, and I think Portland will.
Kudos to Paulson for making it happen and having the stadium in the city. The Timbers will be better for it, and I can’t wait to get to a game there.
any Baseball story is not a good segway to use when comparing the crowds.. Soccer fans everywhere laugh at the comparison.
The whole fan argument thing is turning into that South Park episode where everybody is smelling their own farts.
Isn’t every chant “borrowed” from somewhere, who cares. If it sounds cool use it.
Really it is about doing whatever you want at a game.
Once again I hope Portland loses every game, but I am glad to see them in the league
good work
count the number of teams in 98 compared to now, guessing it is slightly higher and tougher to win the Cup.
For the younger this is true, for the guys that are 40+ this isn’t true. A few of us didn’t feel like going from NASL to virtually nothing to USL. I attended a few, but had no desire to watch minor league soccer on a regular basis.
Portland got MLS, because they had an owner with Money.
1.Let’s see chicago has it’s stadium on the south side and all the $$ people are north/northwest
2. Bears
3. Cubs
4. Bulls
5. Defending Stanley cup champs Blackhawks
6. World class museums
7. World class restraunts
8. 4 of the 10 tallest buildings in north America
9 white sux
Things competing for $$ with the timbers in Portland:
Boats and Trees. Both of which Chicago also has
I was referring to the joke that the TA wouldn’t know who to root for. And if you read the next sentence in my response you’d know I’m fully aware of the “allied invasion” you’ve now linked to.