I think this is the best market for expansion, Portland could back a pro team in the NFL, MLS or the NHL. They only have a NBA team in the five major sports. Portland Timbers have an average attendace of 5,423, they play in PGE park that has a capacity of 20k, that is the perfect capacity for a MLS team.
Except PGE park is shared with a baseball team. And it only seats 20,000 when they add stands into the outfield which they wouldn't do on a regular basis if the baseball team was still a tenant there. Yes, I think Portland would support an MLS team. Probably even be one of the better supported teams. But with no owner, and really no stadium unless they moved the baseball team out or built a new one I don't see MLS in Portland. Plus they have a pretty good rivalry going with Seattle and Vancouver. All old NASL names and kinda fun to see that still going on.
if this were to ever happen i could only see PGE as a temp home to a team...even if there is no baseball in line to play there...looking at the market there this would be a team that would really need its own place... plus how good of an enviroment would PGE be for soccer anyways? anyone know?
pge park is the only logical choice for the timbers. it's downtown, has a lot of history with the city (back when it was civic stadium), surrounded by decent bars/restaurants, has its own rail stop, etc. i'll be there tonight for the timbers/impact game, in fact. any other stadium solutions would involve land either on the outskirts of town or in the burbs, and that alone would cost the team half their attendance. yes the team would need its own home, and pge would have to be that home, hopefully kicking baseball to the curb. the baseball fans here in town want (or wanted, when there was a slim-to-fat chance p-town would get the expos) a new stadium up in delta park anyway, i say let them build their own, cause timbers fans are pretty happy at pge park. but again, this is all moot, because portland has no investor, and many of the fans are happy with the USL and are skeptical of single-entity and the corporate structure of MLS. i personally want portland in the league tomorrow, but i don't see it becoming a reality for some time.
The first thread in this forum is a reference thread to consult. There are already 3 Portland to MLS threads. reference thread for ALL potential expansion cities
Exactly. I'm sorry yure323 but you are constantly making new threads about expansion candidates that HAVE ALREADY BEEN MENTIONED NUMEROUS TIMES, and its getting annoying. Unless there is new news or developments stop throwing cities out there just to throw them out...seriously.