What a surprise. The club is trying to maximize the return on a $70 million investment. And they are making West side improvements. It’s called a business model. Build it and they will come. Judging from the sales, they did it right.
Apparently the Cincinnati shake down (I mean venue noise concerns) was settled today. I wonder how much money was extorted
Oh I'm not saying there's something wrong about it (hence the air quotes), just that it's a reason to not necessarily expect further expansions. They have a lot of up front capital costs, and the $25 proletarian tickets don't really return the value.
Has there been any further word on the possibility of terracing the 100s in the North End? Last I remember hearing about that was several years ago, but it seemed easy and inexpensive enough to accomplish (aside from concourse capacity, which is always an issue) and would have met (CONCACAF'S?) requirements for all-seater venues for (Champions League?) games by having fold-down seats built into the rails.
The last I heard about this (a couple of years ago, I think) is that it's not going to happen. There are two issues that are preventing safe standing from happening: 1) The city didn't want to add more inventory to the general admission section. I think they're worried about some of the historical problems with overpacked GA seating. Anyway, the Timbers can do safe standing, but they have to convert 201-208 to reserved seating. The TA (sensibly) let the FO know that they're opposed to this. 2) The Timbers don't think the concourses in the north end can handle additional people, Paulson said he thought that adding people to the north end would compromise the game day experience. Frankly I agree, it's already a it of an overcrowded mess. Stan Collins is right, I'm not sure there's going to be any additional increase in seats in the foreseeable future. The Timbers already looked into expanding the south end, and they determined that they'd only be able to add about a thousand seats, and the costs for building those seats would take years to make back. Maybe one day they can convince the city to shut down the street on the west side and they build new stands and an enlarged concourse over there, but I suspect westside expansion isn't a realistic option. To be honest 25,000 is a good number for now. Remember 10 years ago when the Timbers were predicting that they'd average 14,000 people a game in their inaugural season and some of the local Portland media were suggesting that was incredibly unrealistic? Or when it was worth tracking how many <10,000 attendance games MLS had? MLS has come a long way in the last 10 years.
Thanks! I had forgotten about the conversion of 200s to assigned seating. I think I may have even gotten an email questionnaire about it (as a season-ticket holder) and said ******** no (I always sat in 207 with my group).
Actually, they estimated 14,000 in the first year and then 12,000 for the next few years in the pro forma.
Rumors! Second hand from my brother, but he talked with someone who said the construction is behind schedule and might not be completely finished by the first game. Not clear if this makes the stadium unusable or just the final touches are going to be behind.
The Army was against it. They just saw it as a way to pack the Army into a smaller place and then sell the rest of the area as seating. And magement didn’t refute that was the aim.
Well the welders have been quitting early because they can’t keep the steel for the canopy dry. But that doesn’t mean they can’t catch up More canopy went up today.
No, it was someone's wife/GF who was at the hairdresser and heard that John Harkes was kicked off the National Team in 1998. Can't believe the bartenders, those guys are full of fake news!
Sadly, they don't offer internet access in Her Majesty's Prisons anymore. Too many Nigerian princes offering to stuff your bank account until it can't hold any more.
PSU has played their final game at Providence. This has been expected for some time, but PSU football is officially out of Providence Park. This resolves the only insurmountable hurdle between the Thorns/Timbers and grass at Providence Park. #RCTID https://t.co/0Kal0L501e— Chris Rifer (@ChrisRifer) February 15, 2019
Here's some honest-to-goodness, legitimate Portland Timbers stadium porn for you: PSU football is permanently moving out of Providence Park. My guess is that there will still be turf for the upcoming season, though maybe there's someone out there who knows how long a conversion to grass might actually take. Assuming they install turf this year they might keep it for the entirety of its usable life (which Paulson says is two years). I firmly believe that the Timbers will have grass by 2021, so long as PSU stays out.
On both sides of the issue. Though how there can be two sides to this issue, among fans, baffles me. Anyway, if Timbers replace their turf with grass it won't shut me up. I'll be shouting primal screams of joy for some time. Talk about a dream club to support, this is just about the only missing piece. Congrats Timbers fans, hoping like hell this comes together.
Maybe somehow they could still use the current turf for the 2019 season and install grass for the 2020 season.
I doubt it. From what the Sounders say whenever grass at CenturyLink comes up, it will be a 6-month process to install grass. I’m not sure they, or MLS wants to have another super late first home game 2 years in a row.. They also just dumped a chunk of change into a new turf field. They’ll probably want to get full two seasons of use out of it.