Portland Timbers

[realtalk101]

Anyone have any inside information on the training sessions in Portland beyond what has been posted? Thanks

[Lendog]

http://www.soccercityusa.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=timbers;action=display;num=1112035626

There's the link with some good info from the locals.

[BetsyRoss]

From the team:
http://www.pgepark.com/timbers/pressRoom.shtml

[ButlerBob]

Any more news about potential owners? Or will it be the Pacific League again this season?

[realtalk101]

http://www.soccercityusa.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=timbers;action=display;num=1112035626

There's the link with some good info from the locals.



Thanks for the link...this is exactly what I am looking for! Cheers

[Paul Schmidt]

Any more news about potential owners? Or will it be the Pacific League again this season?

http://www.oregonlive.com/pbeavers/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/sports/111218080112940.xml

Sounds alright for the interim. As an official hopeless romantic, however, I won't be totally satisfied until the baseball team is shipped off to Reno (or at least their own park near the Rose Quarter) and the Timbers rule the world. :D

[ButlerBob]

Here's an article from the USL site. It doesn't look like the baseball team is going any where. I'm guessing this since the new owners are a baseball group. If anything, since their priority is baseball, I would be more concernined about the Timbers. I have nothing to support that concern, just that it is a secondary item for them. But it's good to see that they have new ownership.


http://www.uslsoccer.com/home/95395.html

[Stan Collins]

I wouldn't read too much into that. From the oregonlive article:

The teams -- reeling from uncertainty -- needed cash to keep the turnstiles spinning, Savage said Tuesday.

That's when Savage turned to Alizadeh, a friend.

The two had known each other for five years. Alizadeh had met with Savage for ideas on how to run a soccer facility he wanted to open in Sacramento.

The group probably needed to be called a "baseball group" to get the rest of the investors, esp. Cain, on board. But the majority owner is Alizadeh, who is apparently a soccer guy. (That name sounds curiously Persian, too).

[Stan Collins]

Google can pay off fast sometimes:

Here's your new owner. Emigrated from Iran in 1977 when he was 18.

http://sacramento.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2003/10/27/story7.html

Evidently he's built himself quite a real estate empire. Read in another article it's worth about $300 Million.

[Finnegan]

Google can pay off fast sometimes:

Here's your new owner. Emigrated from Iran in 1977 when he was 18.

http://sacramento.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2003/10/27/story7.html

Evidently he's built himself quite a real estate empire. Read in another article it's worth about $300 Million.

That's MLS level $$$. Hmmm......Iranian guy, wanted to build a SSS in Sacramento. Instead buys Beavers and Timbers. PGE Park is ripe to be a SSS. Portland is probably one of the ripest cities for MLS expansion.

I know wishful thinking BUT BUT the signs ARE THERE.

[Stan Collins]

Honestly, I had similar thoughts. I would wait to see how it all plays out. If the current mix has trouble, there may be some possibility. I know there was a group looking to bring MLS to Portland in partnership with Mexican club Pachuca. If baseball proves non-viable, perhaps either that group, Alizadeh, or a partnership between the two, might look to MLS for PGE. (At that point, could anyone honestly say there was a better option for that stadium?)

[Geoduck]

More about Alizadeh's past soccer efforts in Sac'to:

http://www.natomasjournal.com/features6.html
http://www.natomasjournal.com/raining-baseballs.html

Bodes well for the Timbers' stability in USL, but why would Alizadeh bother with a Portland MLS team when the Earthquakes are for sale, and there will be a potentially suitable new stadium on the UC-Davis campus (near Sacramento)?

[Paul Schmidt]

The fewer on-campus stadia (IF on-campus = no alcohol), the better. I'll make a bet that happens at Davis.

The fringe of Davis is 15 miles from the Sacramento River, and the campus is on the west side of town. The population center in Sacramento is EAST of downtown. I think Alizadeh knows this doesn't fit.

[Geoduck]

The fewer on-campus stadia (IF on-campus = no alcohol), the better. I'll make a bet that happens at Davis.

The fringe of Davis is 15 miles from the Sacramento River, and the campus is on the west side of town. The population center in Sacramento is EAST of downtown. I think Alizadeh knows this doesn't fit.Thanks for the info. I thought that housing prices were pushing Bay Area workers farther and farther east, though.

The main point regarding Alizadeh/Portland/MLS is why would he bother with Portland when the Quakes are available? Even if there weren't anywhere to play in Sacramento and the Davis stadium weren't feasible, San Jose would still be more convenient for Alizadeh than Portland.

[Paul Schmidt]

Alizadeh is interested in the baseball side of things. The PCL wouldn't be brokering a sale for someone who ends up scooting the Beavers out of Portland.

[Stan Collins]

Alizadeh is interested in the baseball side of things. The PCL wouldn't be brokering a sale for someone who ends up scooting the Beavers out of Portland. I'm sure there's truth there, but an inspection of his personal history reveals that any implication he's a "baseball, not soccer guy" would be a strong exaggeration. The deals he's made have all had soccer in them, and the ones with baseball have all have had partners who clearly were just baseball guys, including this one. There's reasonable grounds to expect that on these deals, the partners are bigger baseball people than he is.

{Now, this is rampant idle speculation, but you wonder if Cain isn't involved precisely because that's what it would take to get the PCL to approve. It's not like Alizadeh doesn't have the money to do the whole thing himself.}

[Paul Schmidt]

I had this somewhat longer post at talktimbers.com that I should link that makes sense... but I'll try the short version here.

Alizadeh definitely has more of a soccer background, whatever that means.

AAA baseball, in 60% of cases, is a license to print money... well, one bill at a time. I can see an easy possible difference between Abe's sporting nature and his business nature here.

The PCL brokered this deal; they've been in charge, and I don't think the move they made is designed to come back and bite them in the butt.

However, I can also easily see Alizadeh giving the Timbers more TLC than PFE did.