Re: MLS to announce Portland Timbers 18th Team are they announcing on Friday because of the friendly between Portland and New York?
Re: MLS to announce Portland Timbers 18th Team so MLS just created a Huge North West prescense. Pretty strategy as that probably has the biggest void for other Major League teams with just the Blazers and the Seattle teams getting any national attention
Re: MLS to announce Portland Timbers 18th Team Sounds like MLS is about to have itself a "Northwest Triangle". Looking forward to it already. Congrats Timbers fans if this turns out to be true.
Re: MLS to announce Portland Timbers 18th Team If true, WOW. Vancouver expansion announcement on Wednesday. Sounders first game on Thursday. Portland expansion announcement on Friday. Like I said, WOW. What a week in the great Northwest.
Re: MLS to announce Portland Timbers 18th Team IT'S TRUE! i am so happy i just can't even explain right now! see you all in 2011!
Re: MLS to announce Portland Timbers 18th Team So the tally of Northwest sports teams in 2011 could go like this: NFL: one (Seattle Seahawks) MLB: one (Seattle Mariners) NBA: one (Portland Trailblazers) NHL: one (Vancouver Canucks) MLS: three (Seattle, Portland, Vancouver)
Re: MLS to announce Portland Timbers 18th Team UW football is probably the 2nd biggest, and Oregon football big as well, if you are talking about media attention and general sports attention
Re: MLS to announce Portland Timbers 18th Team Holy cow. If this is true about Vancouver and Portland, these would be some of the best decisions in MLS history. Along with Seattle, these two cities have soccer mad owners, existing club structures, a road map to sign their own talent via Seattle MLS and . . . and . . . I'd like to stop expanding for the league's health. Let's absorb the 17th and 18th clubs and expand the brand, get more commercial dollars, increase the salary cap, focus on the clubs' soccer structures (youth academies, maybe farm clubs like MLB) and allow the league to grow into its new footprint. Then MLS can ask Montreal and St. Louis for $50-$60 million per club in a few years (sorry southeastern US).
Re: MLS to announce Portland Timbers 18th Team Congrats Timber faithful. I've been pulling for both Cascadia cities this time around. Enjoy it!
Re: MLS to announce Portland Timbers 18th Team I have my fingers crossed that this all turns out to be true! I really hope that it is. I can't wait to visit these these new teams in the Great Northwest!
Re: MLS to announce Portland Timbers 18th Team I do feel bad for St. Louis and Jeff Cooper. However, I would have chosen Vancouver and Portland too! The downtown stadium sites are just too good to pass up.
Re: MLS to announce Portland Timbers 18th Team Can we finally put to rest the idea that a "SSS" is a necessary thing for expansion? Portland will be in a city owned facility even after the upgrade and BC Place is not owned by the Whitecaps. It's $$$$ plain and simple that gets a franchise.
Re: MLS to announce Portland Timbers 18th Team I'm not counting my chickens yet....fingers bloody crossed. It's still almost too good to be true that we have our 3 clubs together where they should be. What's interesting, what people in these parts have always known, and the rest of NA has not, this sport has always been and will always be very popular in the Pacific NW...or in Canada, that would be West Coast.
Re: MLS to announce Portland Timbers 18th Team The 40 million is important, but so is control of revenue streams w/in the stadium, and to a lesser extent control over scheduling. That's what a SSS provides most teams. Seattle wouldn't have gotten a team if they were paying RFK or Giants Stadium rent.
Re: MLS to announce Portland Timbers 18th Team Without getting into the whole "why and how" Qwest was built......They never would have had to pay that type of rent.
Re: MLS to announce Portland Timbers 18th Team I'm aware of the importance of the soccer vote in getting Qwest built, and the fact that it was designed w/soccer in mind at every turn. It was an important aspect of Seattle getting a franchise.
Re: MLS to announce Portland Timbers 18th Team Most SSS are city owned. Only Crew Stadium and HDC are owned by the teams themselves.
Re: MLS to announce Portland Timbers 18th Team The owners want to avoid property taxes of course! It's usually better if the city owns the facility, provided the team controls virtually everything else.
Re: MLS to announce Portland Timbers 18th Team Ok............... back on track. Here's to the Timbers and their fans.
Re: MLS to announce Portland Timbers 18th Team Can someone, as simply as possible, run down their stadium situation?