http://www.mlstopdx.com/

The fun is just beginning.

Very interesting web site, Paul. I read most of the stuff, and have to say I disagree with the gentleman who thinks PGE Park should be left as a "baseball" stadium and a new soccer stadium built near the Rose Garden; it should be the other way around. PGE is perfectly suited (with some renovations) for a 20,000-30,000 seat soccer stadium, but will never be a workable 40,000-seat baseball stadium. The PPS land, on the other hand, has plenty of room for the larger stadium for baseball. (If we build a new baseball stadium in Lents, I'm afraid it will be a very long time before MLB comes to Portland, so I don't favor that idea at all).

Good luck with the MLStoPDX movement. I'm not that big a soccer fan, but I wish everyone the best in their efforts, and think bringing a team to Portland will actually help the MLB2PDX drive as well.

Exciting to think about MLS to PDX, but it appears that the legwork Merritt & co. must do in the next weeks/months should've been handled several months ago (if we wanted to be a truly serious contenda for MLS--[i.e. we're too late])...and, looks like St. Looey and Montreal are your 2011 MLS expansion cities...Bollocks.

St. Louis... are you ready for this? They have a stadium proposal in pocket, but MLS has been saying that the proposed ownership group doesn't have deep enough pockets.

Vancouver... looks like they're going to propose BC Place as a temporary home, but don't really have the new stadium proposal in their pocket. MLS has enough stress from "assurances" that Salt Lake and Houston had stadia in their pocket when being accepted (Salt Lake eventually figured things out and their place opens in October, Houston is still shooting for a downtown location).

Las Vegas, Miami... not serious at this point.

Ottawa... even the Canadian press laughs at that one.

Atlanta, 2nd New York team... not ready yet.

Top 4 here are Montreal, Vancouver, Portland, and St. Louis. Probably in that order.

One more thing... if Vancouver gets the nod (and we're thinking MLS will stay with two "conferences" and accept one west and one east), Portland is by its lonesome in USL-1 out west. That's just not going to stand. I suspect a couple existing MLS franchises will be available.

Mind you... LOTS of things can change by MLS Cup 2009, which is the best bet for a league announcement. They usually do. Enjoy the process.