Timbers Hold First MLS Staff Meeting
The day some doubted would ever happen and many anti-football people in Oregon hoped wouldn’t took place this week. Portland Timbers, the MLS incarnation, is a reality. Not on paper, not somewhere in a far off calendar, but today in Portland, in fact in the dressing room at PGE Park, the Timbers took a big step forward. In the first ever staff meeting of the MLS side, owner Merritt Paulson addressed 50 staff members. His words were understandably proud.
“This is bigger than the Pacific Northwest being the hub of soccer in North America,” Paulson said. “This is about soccer finally taking hold in the country. You know, for years people have asked, ‘When will the world’s biggest sport finally matter in America? When will all those kids who play soccer actually watch soccer?’ And I tell you that that time is now. Don’t get me wrong; there’s a lot of work to do on and off the field. But we’ve hit that tipping point.”
In an earlier call on the speakerphone, MLS Commissioner Don Garber praised Paulson for doing “yeoman’s work” in completing the final hurdles to bring the franchise to MLS. To reach this point, Paulson had to lock down the $31 million public-private partnership to renovate PGE Park for football. That happened on Wednesday and now, there are no further bureaucratic hurdles to bringing top level football to Portland.
Garber was quick to point out that Portland’s arrival will complement the revolution already taking place in the Pacific Northwest, both 24 months ahead of them in Seattle, and contemporaneously in British Columbia.
“But the real exciting time for all of us is in 2011, when you join with Vancouver (B.C.) and match up with Seattle and I think give us what this country has never had, which is a true epicenter of passion for the sport. Seattle is continuing to surprise us all. They haven’t announced it yet, but they’ve sold out their available season tickets (for 2010). They’re now at 32,000 and expect to go well north of 40,000 for their attendance.”
Portland have sold 5,000 season ticket deposits and but there is little doubt they will be able to fill every seat of PGE’s intended 24,000 capacity when MLS kicks off in Oregon in 2011.
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When Soccer Proforma presented to the City of Portland’s task force the projected average ticket sales of 14,000 per MLS match, with only 80% of those ticket holders actually showing up — resulting in a projected average turnstile attendance of 11,200.