Timbers men's season ticket holders and wait listers (season tickets are sold out, with a 96% renewal rate for next year) have first dibs on the women's season tickets, but you already can call and, with a deposit, get on the list for women's season tickets. I just did it, and they told me they are getting a lot of calls already.
Apparently there may be a legal issue which could prevent the team from being called the Timbers: http://www.stumptownfooty.com/2012/11/21/3677032/portland-womens-team-not-named-timbers-nike-adidas
If they go with the "Rose City FC" that's mentioned in the comments on that article, that would be pretty sweet.
Wouldn't it have been sweet if Seattle Sounders women would have joined the league and then you could have an unprecidented women's rivalry already made between Seattle and Portland. They could schedule games between the women before the men play their rivalry game on the same day. That would be one heck of an event. These guys and gals up here in the NW would pack the stadium not just for the men's game but the women's as well.
Actually, I kinda prefer that it won't be Timbers v. Sounders. The rivalry will develop like it has between any two teams in Seattle and Portland, and if they have different names, then it will be more likely to develop in its own organic way. Regarding the colors: I would assume that they will likely be either red or green primary, both of which are in line with basically every other popular team around here. It all depends on the name, though. It seems unlikely that they will be able to use the Timbers name, but if they did, it would definitely be green primary. If they choose Rose City FC, or something similar, almost assuredly red primary, and likely a green secondary for that. If they go with the city history and choose Portland Rain, then they would also likely do a red primary like the current Rain team did this year after the Timbers essentially took them under their umbrella. Currently I see red being the most likely candidate.
I could see Rose City FC -- or Rose City United -- and Emerald City FC -- or Emerald City United. For the women in Portland, I think Rose City is preferable to Timbers. We'll have the Portland Timbers FC and the Portlandia Rose City FC. For those not from Portland, "Portlandia" has significant meaning and it has nothing to do with a TV show. Maybe Cliveworshipper will post a picture of Portlandia?
Symbol of the city. At 35 ft tall, she's the second largest repoussé (hammered copper) statue in the country, behind only the Statue of Liberty in NYC. If she were standing, she would be 50 ft tall. She is perched over the entrance to the Portland Building, which houses many city offices. The block she is on has grown up around her and she's a bit hard to see now. There is talk of moving her to Waterfront Park. The trident would make more sense then. I'm partial to the Portland Reign name. Like the Timbers, it has history here. Tiffeny Milbrett's mom played on some of the early teams.
She is probably not going anywhere until sculptor Raymond Kaskey dies. He still owns her rights and said he designed her for the spot. I can see what he means, though. When I used to go into the permit office I'd look up and see this. Sure is a bony knee.
Portlandia was commissioned for the exact location where she now resides, as part of the Portland Building (early post modernism) project for which Michael Graves was the architect. I think she's in just the right spot, so they simply need to trim the trees around her. She's a perfect symbol for our new team, a powerful, bigger-than-life woman. In fact, maybe Abby was Kaskey's model.
If the team uses the Portlandia image and she is kneeling, they will probably get sued by Kaskey. He has famously sued movie studios if she shows up on film without paying royalties. I'm guessing that's not in the budget. But she is the city symbol standing up. I saw Abby's pose in SI. She wasn't wearing the sheet.
I'm not sure they actually own them, I think they just gave them an infusion of money. They have had age group teams for years. Sounders women was sort of the same, except they were allowed to use the Sounders name. But it is possible that something might be done.
They do not own them, but completely financially support them. The reason behind not using the name is if they want this endeavor to be completely separate from the currently existing Rain. If they decide to continue operating a WPSL women's team, they still have the issue of naming that team if they use Rain for the D1 team.
They could just use Lite Rain. Back in the day, before they became the Pilots, there was a naming competition for The U of Portland teams, which I think were all men's teams. Sports columnists kept using knicknames like the webfoot, which had nothing to do with Portland and was too much like the Ducks. Lore has it that the student body voted for "Rosebuds". This is, after all, the Rose City. The administration veto'd the name and settled on Pilots. Not as interesting as the Stanford student selection of Robber Barons, but still good.
The image is too small to be able to read the text on the left. That billboard is way too similar to the men's team's initial campaign for me to think that poster is for anything but that.
I meant that I would bet that billboard (assuming said small date is for this/next year) is for the men's team, not the new women's team. If it isn't intended for the men's team, then the marketing department is making a big mistake, because it will likely be confused as an advertisement for the same product, rather than a new one.