It's funny how the news cycle works. We hear about something, it reaches some sort of logical conclusion, and we move quickly on to the next story. This is true of both consumers and distributors of news, and shows just how short our attention spans truly are.
Case in point: Portland's MLS expansion situation. The City Council held a vote, the measure passed (just barely), the league bestowed Merritt Paulson with the expansion gold seal for 2011, the collective American soccer community cheered (for the most part), and then we forgot about them. It's two years until they enter the league, so why waste our time worrying about the preparations (besides a little talk about ticket sales), when everything seemed to be a foregone conclusion?
More after the jump.
Yet things are not so rosy in the Rose City. The stadium renovation plan for PGE Park, the part of the plan that MLS fans care about, is yet to get the green light.
The crux of the matter isn't even the new-and-improved PGE Park; the issue, and the reason for the holdup, is the stadium that must be built to house the Portland Beavers after PGE Park becomes MLS-only. In order for that to happen, the city's old Memorial Stadium must be demolished, something which some in Portland simply don't want to happen.
Ugh. As a soccer fan, and as someone who believes that Portland is a proto-typical MLS market, as I want is for the stadium to get renovated, the anticipation to build and for Portland to give us "Seattle, Part II" (that's sure to piss off fans of both the Sounders and the Timbers; I hear they don't like each other). The league needs the rivalries in the Northwest more than it needs almost anything else; the start of 2009 is a stark reminder how poor MLS atmospheres can be, and Vancouver-Seattle-Portland would immediately improve things.
Still, I completely understand those citizens of Portland who insist on due-diligence on the part of their city government. If people want to be sure that the financial obligations, veteran memorials, and other concerns are probably addressed before the stadium construction goes forward, who are we to call that into question? It's those in Portland who oppose the plan without regard to legitimate oversight and are simply "haters", causing trouble because the Rose Quarter issues are their cause-du-jour.
An entreaty from PGE Park, which I came across here.
“THE PLAN TO HELP THE ECONOMY AND BRING MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER AND BETTER BEAVERS BASEBALL TO PORTLAND NEEDS YOUR HELP
“In just a few days, the City Council will vote to take the critical next step in the plan to bring Major League Soccer to Portland – deciding on a Rose Quarter location for a new and better home for the Portland Beavers.
“Retiring the Memorial Coliseum and building an intimate new 8,000-seat stadium at the Rose Quarter will dramatically increase attendance at Beavers games, helping the local economy and generating more funds for the city spectator funds and nearby parking garages. The Memorial Coliseum (will also be replaced) with a new memorial honoring all Oregon veterans.
“The improvements required to PGE Park to bring Major League Soccer to Portland will make it an even better venue for soccer and football. Taken together, MLS at PGE Park and Beavers baseball at the Rose Quarter will create 600 short-term jobs, more than 300 long-term jobs and generate roughly $50 million in annual economic activity in the community.”
The bottom line remains that MLS will have to pull out of Portland if the stadium issues do not get resolved. That would be a PR nightmare for the league, something all the Sounders success cannot possibly mitigate. Cross your fingers that the support soccer fans are attempting to drum up in Portland pushes things forward; while most MLS fans have moved on and are taking the Timbers' entry into the league in 2011 as a given, there's still some work to do out there.
For much more background on the matter, I give you a link to Field of Schemes. Please keep in mind that the site is anti-publicly financed stadium at its core. There are some basic issues in Portland (see basic math errors) that don't bode well for a smoothly implemented plan.
On a lighter note, there are "rumors" about the Timbers potential MLS logo. Color me underwhelmed; not about the actual logo (I'm all for continuity, and the Timbers already have a strong logo), but about the "rumors" and nonsense surrounding it. Until work has begun on PGE Park, I'm not going to worry about how the Timbers might look.
If you care, it's the image at the top of this post.
