Sports Portland’s initiation into Major League Soccer played to sellout crowds last week and produced the Timbers’ first wins of the season. For those who weren’t among the 18,600-plus fans to pack    More

News Portland Timbers fans are learning quickly to expect wall-to-wall action with their Major League Soccer team at home.After giving up two goals with a 3-0 lead against Chicago on Thursday in their MLS home opener, the Timbers did the same thing against F.C. Dallas on Sunday and survived with a 3-2 win at Jeld-Wen Field following multiple Dallas assaults on the goal in extra time. “Obviously, fatigue ...   More

News Playing their Major League Soccer home opener last night, the Portland Timbers were easily recognized in their green and yellow. But everything else last night at newly christened Jeld-Wen Field seemed newer and larger than ever in the context of Portland's long soccer history. From the heavy downpour and the banners to the national telecast on ESPN2 and the high scoring in Portland's 4-2 victory over ...   More

News In a 4-0 vote with Commissioner Nick Fish absent on vacation, City Council today approved the parking plan for the streets around Jeld-Wen Field formerly known as PGE Park.That plan, which Mayor Sam Adams introduced as an emergency ordinance, calls for expanding the hours for paid parking around the revamped stadium on Portland Timbers game nights and increasing the hourly rates from $1.60 to $3.50 ...   More

Sports The Portland Timbers’ inaugural season in Major League Soccer kicks off this Saturday, March 19, at Colorado.  Before that happens, here’s a guide for casual fans to some of the big differe   More

News Look for some unhappy Portland Democrats after today's announcement that PGE Park will be renamed Jeld-Wen Field when the Timbers begin play in Major League Soccer.Not because there's any great sentiment for PGE, the state's largest utility and a subsidiary of Enron when it hung its name on the old Civic Stadium a decade ago.But rather because of the political activities of Jeld-Wen's founder, the ...   More

News The official announcement from Major League Soccer hasn't been made yet, but it appears Merritt Paulson may be getting his new business in order already. WW has learned Mike Golub, a senior advisor for Vulcan Sports & Entertainment, a sister company of Paul Allen's Trail Blazers franchise, is under consideration for a new gig as the general manager for Merritt Paulson's Major League Soccer ...   More

News Merritt Paulson, the new owner of a Major League Soccer team in Portland, says he has made no decisions on new hires, despite chatter he's considering Mike Golub (who carries Trail Blazers bona fides) for a new gig. Last week, WW wrote Paulson was considering making Golub the Timbers' new general manager. Here's what Paulson had to say about that today, March 23, in an email: 1) A GM of a MLS ...   More

News Here's an interesting read from The New York Times soccer blog that quotes Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber saying the league's quality of players isn't meeting the fans' demands. Strikes me as a hard problem to surmount, especially as the league expands with moves into Portland and Vancouver. Here's why: Even if there's a time when the crowded U.S. sports landscape creates enough ...   More

News Mayor Sam Adams and Commissioner Randy Leonard may think tearing down Portland's 49-year-old Memorial Coliseum to make room for a new minor-league baseball stadium is a done deal. But a serious opposition has begun to coalesce. Writer Brian Libby has penned a sports-centric protest on his blog, Portland Architecture. Today the American Intsitute of Architects sent City Council a letter condemning ...   More