Skip to main contentTensions turned nasty on Sunday between the Portland Timbers and San Jose Earthquakes—both on the pitch, where Earthquakes striker Alan Gordon uttered a homophobic slur while being ejected, and outside the stadium, where Earthquakes fans smashed in the windshield of a driver who held up a Timbers scarf.
But those incidents overshadow a more established war that may have turned violent last night: a feud between the Timbers Army and ticket scalpers.
The official Timbers Army Twitter account reported Sunday evening that a scalper had punched a fan outside Jeld-Wen Field before the San Jose game.
Confrontations between the two groups are not new, says Timbers fan Niall McCusker. "People like to get up in the scalpers' face and ask them stupid questions," McCusker says. "They've decided they don't like them."
McCusker says he's never minded the scalpers that much. "I've been going to games for years and I've never gotten hit in the face. My guess is the guy probably deserved it. I'm coming down on the scalpers' side on this one."
A post by Andrew Brawley on the Timbers Army site advises fans not to buy from scalpers, but also not to acknowledge them.
Ticket scalping is legal in Oregon, but Portland bans it on city-owned properties, like Jeld-Wen Field.
A Portland Police Bureau spokesman says police don't yet have confirmation that any contact occurred between a scalper and a fan. Police have received several inquiries about a YouTube video showing a verbal confrontation between a scalper and a fan, but say the video shows no crime.
WWeek 2015