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 As the Portland Timbers' April 14 home opener approaches, City of Portland records show the renovation of PGE Park from a multi-purpose stadium to a Major League Soccer facility is on time but about $5 million over the project's $31 million budget. (The original development agreement calls for the city to contribute $11.9 million to the project and Timbers owner Merritt Paulson to contribute $19.3 ...   More

News With the Portland Timbers' first Major League Soccer home game approaching on April 14, the Northwest District Association is ready to send the city some recommendations for parking around PGE Park. Stadium neighbors have worried about the impact of large crowds in the debut MLS season.And neighborhood association president Ron Walters says the NWDA is now suggesting the city set one 90-minute parking ...   More

News On Tuesday, April 14, Mayor Sam Adams is hosting an "open house" with the public to discuss his quickly-developed plans to tear down Memorial Coliseum and build a minor-league baseball stadium in the Rose Quarter. With only days to go before City Council is expected to vote on the project on April 22, business owners from around the Rose Quarter already have questions for the mayor. "I am concerned ...   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

News As if the powers behind a new minor-league baseball stadium in the Rose Quarter and revamping PGE Park for Major League Soccer didn't have enough to worry about, now this longstanding concern about potty parity at stadiums has made it to the front page of today's New York Times. Fortunately, Portland already has its own commissioner concerned with all things potty. We're sure he's already on ...   More

News [youtube Z7_4N8GI8no] While we wait — and wait — for City Hall to land on a deal that allows PGE Park to be revamped so Timbers fans can enjoy Major League Soccer, the latest attendance numbers for MLS offer ammunition for both the deal's supporters and opponents. Lending credence to the belief that the league's prospects are strong if and when it comes to Portland is the fact ...   More

News Since last we checked in on the attendance figures for Major League Soccer a month ago and found a decline of 5.5 percent from the same time period last year, two things have happened. 1) The new franchise in Seattle continues to draw well, pulling in nearly 30,000 fans a game and leading the league by far in attendance. 2) The decline in overall attendance continues to worsen, now dropping ...   More