Please forgive my picking nits... but I never go into any "team might move given a new stadium" scenario thinking it'll cross all the barriers in two years. That's extremely rare. It almost always takes several years for these things to come to fruition.

quote:

Originally posted by JONFARR:
Well, I don't see the Beavers moving until after 09. I mean they are hosting the Triple A All-Star game that year and I can't imagine the Beavers being gone and still having this game played here.

Yep, that's a good point. And I think the lease agreements at PGE run out another year or two after that as well, although I'm sure they could be bought out IF a suitable alternative exists.

PGE, for all its warts, would make a great MLS/PSU football facility. imagine if they had grandstands along 18th avenue, along with some pubs and merchandise outlets nestled along the stadium wall. That would be a pretty cool sight to see when passing by on the MAX, and I'm sure it could be filled to the brim 25-35 times a year.

But still the key in all this in the short run is where do the Beavers go, and the long run the question is could MLB eventually go in the spot where the Beavers go (if they stay in Portland).

I know this will never happen, but city planners would be better off if they aligned things for the Timbers (@ PGE) and Beavers (@ Rose Quarter). Do it right, and mix in Saturday Market and other cool amenities in the Rose Quarter, and they wouldn't have to bother building a convention center hotel. I'm sure the existing hotels would feel better about chipping in for improving tourist amenities, as opposed to public money being spent on a competing hotel facility. Plus the demand would be there and the CC hotel would be privately funded as it should be.

Say PGE does get MLS and expands the stadium, where are all the cars going to park. It is already terrible to find good parking and I don't see MAX as the answer.

My guess is that they will rely on a combination of MAX (which has more lines running now than in the past), and shuttles from PSU like they do for PSU Football games. But your question is a valid one that the powerful Goose Hollow neighborhood association would have a say in.

My *hope* is that they will accept the tradeoff of 25-35 dates for MLS/PSU football, as opposed to the current 80-100 dates for the Beavers, Timbers, and PSU football.

Good points. I actually didn't even think about PSU at all.

I go to PSU and I did not realize they did shuttles for the campus to the games. Are they free? I did pay somewhere around $300 for a fulltime permit to their garages so this would be nice.

Does not the MLS require grass turf or has that changed? Can you imagine covering Qwest Field and PGE Park with sod?

I believe when Qwest, then Seahawks Stadium, opened that it was natural grass. Or am I wrong?

Chickenhawk/Qworst (there's no excuses for the Timber in me coming out... nor will there be any apologies) never had "permanent" natural grass. The stadium people teased the locals with that, then announced FieldTurf before the stadium started operating. That's merely one of several bait-and-switches involved with that stadium's history.

Mind you, there have been a couple USA friendlies, some Gold Cup matches, and some of the European powers visiting the place. For those matches, they temporarily overlay sod. They sure don't do it for the Flounders on a regular basis... and a Flounders-Timbers match in 2005 between Gold Cup matches was shipped out to Tukwila.

Toronto got FIFA-approved FieldTurf for BMO Field, and apparently there's no likelihood that's going to change anytime soon... but since there's a rumor of the Argonauts wanting to break a lease and move out of SkyDome (or Insert Sponsor Here Stadium), that's about to get complicated... doubly so because of the CFL tendency to paint sponsor logos on their fields, an essential FIFA no-no.

BTW... Gillette Stadium in Foxboro rather publically went to FieldTurf last autumn. Do note that the Kraft clan has been trying to lobby Boston and suburbs for a new Revolution stadium in the meantime, to limited success.

BTW... the announcement hasn't been made officially yet, but Toronto will likely visit Portland to play the Timbers on Sunday, October 28.

That reminds me... memo to the city: get rid of that current surface at Piggy before I get the gumption to burn it off.

⤴ I didn't think Qwest Field had natural turf. I remember, while living in Seattle, the stink that came about when they announced Field Turf instead of the natural turf that was originally planned.

I hope the MLS sticks to the natural turf field requirement.

You may call it Qworst, but it is actually, IMO, the best Stadium in the NFL. I have been to a few others (FedEx, M&T Bank) and they don't even come close to the beauty, feel, looks, etc... It is a great place to watch a football game. Gotta love the atmosphere at the games also.

⤴ I have to agree...I have been to a few Seahawks games sitting in the Hawks Nest. Great venue..but soccer should be played on natural turf...

If Portland lands an MLS team, we'll be #16, not #15...

Paul Allen's Vulcan and others will be getting an expansion team in Seattle. Announcement should be coming shortly.

-- Maury

I think we've been working for at least two weeks now with the knowledge that S**ttle will "probably" be #15. In all likelihood, Portland won't be #16 either... Collinsville IL has approved funds for a stadium for St. Louis.

However...

http://www.oregonlive.com/timbers/oregonian/index.ssf?/...725187180.xml&coll=7

Somewhere in the 17-18 range seems likely at this point.

I'll call it Qworst. Is it nice? Yes. Problem 1- it's in S**ttle. Problem 2- those cop rejects need to be removed from the pool of security employees.

paul,

I like Seattle and Portland. So that is not an issue with me.

quote:

roblem 2- those cop rejects need to be removed from the pool of security employees.

Agreed. They are pointless.

Merritt Paulson met with MLS officials today (sorry, no time to find a link, but I'm sure it's at O-Live or some other place)...

The piece at O-Live claimed Paulson was "negotiating to bring the highest level of soccer in the U.S." to PDX, and that MLS officials are going to watch the US Womens' game (tonight?) at PGE...don't they know not to schedule these games in mid-October? ...PGE/the city would've looked a lot more attractive a month or 2 ago...another thing the piece claimed was that league officals supposedly confirmed SEA and PDX could each receive expansion franchises...

Could it be ... Paulson brings MLS to PGE, buys the Blanchard property, builds a new stadium there for the Beavs that can easily be expanded for MLB, and acquires a baseball franchise for Portland in a few years?

Keep the dream alive, OSC!

Yes! Yes! Yes!

This is our wet dream for the last two/three years!
Is Mr. Paulsen reading our Forums?
And then would he support a move of the Lower Albina (narrow lanes, very English backstreet like with Pubs aplenty) and Rose Quarter/OCC (very modern and futuristic in design) area into a Entertainment Center.
And finally help move Portland into the 21st Century with High Speed Rail on the eastside with the MC as the Hub (aka "Memorial Station")?

Our vision is there if someone can pencil it out!

BB

Sure BB, no problem. I'm sure someone in the family has a few billion in T-Bills laying around the house.

So the latest...

Another thread carries the Seattle MLS award. Fortunately, I don't have to show you the LIME GREEN uniforms they want to use. It's as if they think that will draw people from Portland. Laughable. Hilarious, even.

Philadelphia is #16. Stadium proposal is downstream along the Schulykill, in Chester, which is almost closer to Delaware than Independence Hall. It's also a seriously blighted area that city leaders want to see fixed up. Oh well, not everyone can learn from Toronto.

Miami HAD a plan to build a stadium next to the new ballpark. Gone. Funds removed. Nobody wanted ownership, and that's a smart move where the Fusion have already failed. Miami is a soccer market, just for countries MLS isn't about to service.

St. Louis- the suburb of Collinsville, Illinois has a stadium plan in place, but MLS is not yet satisfied with the St. Louis ownership group's viability. If MLS is getting picky, you KNOW something's wrong... and St. Louis is probably this country's original soccer market.

Vancouver- the waterfront stadium proposal's snag is finally public. It's the Port of Vancouver that is stalling, probably hoping it goes away, probably trying to force Greg Kerfoot to sell the railyards he bought to enable the idea in the first place, since Kerfoot wanted to use fees from railroads going over that land to offset his stadium costs (he planned to privately fund the stadium). However, the Whitecaps have a tentative agreement with BC Place to play there when MLS comes, perhaps before. It appears, BTW, that renovation plans for BC Place are coming to the fore... probably a downsizing of the stadium for the benefit of BC Lions, and perhaps a retractable roof as well.

PORTLAND- Apparently, Lents and Paulson's boys are about to have meetings over the baseball stadium proposal. http://timbers.theoffside.com/portland-mls-expansion/le...nciples-meeting.html I realize some comments on OSC characterize Lents as unwilling, but I recognize a few too many names getting involved to think that rejection is a slam dunk.