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By Rachel Saslow rsaslow@wweek.com
It’s one of the first Portland Bangers soccer games and the weenie jokes will not quit.
“Bring your wurst” T-shirts hang in the merch tent at the May 30 game. A lively cheering section chants a variation of the 2000 Ricky Martin song “She Bangs.” The 11-foot mascot, Saucy T. Sausage, roams the stands, visible grill marks along its girth. This is the same mascot that garnered the attention of comedian Stephen Colbert, who just called Saucy “a porno version of the Grinch” on his late show.
What more could Portland fans expect from a soccer club owned by the same team that brought them the Portland Pickles? As the collegiate wood-bat baseball team marks its 10th anniversary playing in Lents Park’s Walker Stadium, the owners are trying to re-create that Pickles spirit—goofy, accessible, phallic—9 miles north in the former Concordia University soccer stadium, now owned by the University of Oregon.
The Bangers would not be possible without the momentum from the Portland Pickles, a bona fide marketing sensation and defending champions of the Wild West League. The team is famous within the league and beyond for its zany promotional schedule, which has included a 10-cent beer night, mascot Dillon T. Pickle trying to launch a pickle into space, and blowing up a giant fake “whale” in the outfield in 2022. Along the way, loyal Pickles fans have had to start buying tickets further in advance, as sellouts become more common. The Pickles’ had the second-highest attendance in their league in 2024, behind the Edmonton Riverhawks in Alberta, Canada, according to Ballpark Digest.
The decision to expand into soccer stems from the fact that Portland is already packed with soccer fans, including a few within the Pickles front office who played in college, such as general manager Courtney Schmidt. It was an obvious next choice, co-owner Alan Miller says.
“We think there is an opportunity here to blow this thing out of the water,” Miller says. “We have had a tremendous amount of success with the Pickles, working with collegiate talent, and really bringing this whole place to a new level it deserves, and we’re excited to do that with soccer.”
But a team’s culture does not materialize overnight, and soccer culture is very different from baseball’s. So will it work? Here’s how it’s going so far:
People actually watch the game
Miller, who also co-owns the Bangers, figured that out quickly at the first three home games in May, in which the Bangers went goalless.
“People love the sport,” Miller says. “Soccer fans, from what I’ve experienced, get there pretty close to when the game starts, get in their seats and are just laser-focused on the product and the talent, and they love that experience. Which is incredible, and it’s an advantage that baseball doesn’t have because baseball has to do a lot of different things to keep people’s interest.”
The mascot is “nightmare fuel”
A grassroots fan base is already starting to emerge, though. At the May 30 game versus FC Olympia, Naomi Kelley wore a homemade, hot-pink terrycloth Saucy T. Sausage hat and stood in the Bangers’ vocal “supporters” section near one of the goals.
“The energy has always been so good, so quirky and fun,” Kelley says. She’s not an avid soccer follower but had already been to all three Bangers games because she likes to support college athletes and get in on all the theme nights and team swag.
She’s not 100% sure about Saucy T. Sausage, though: “It’s nightmare fuel. I love it.” (About Saucy: on the May 20 episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the host reacted to a photo by saying “Oh my God! Not only is he horrifying, he’s wearing his own children as hair…I’m not sure this says ‘sexy.’ I think it says, ‘I’m about to commit a home invasion.’”)
Miller was thrilled with the teasing.
“If he’s sitting there laughing while saying it, then we did our job.”
There’s a lot more singing
Standing near Kelley and her Saucy hat was Sean Cumming, leading the chants with the help of three drummers. Cumming printed out and distributed a Portland Bangers chant sheet with 14 chants and songs that he wrote to help get the new team’s crowd started. (Sample: “We’re pink, we’re green/We go well with mash and beans!”)
Cumming grew up in Scotland rooting for Dundee United, which is why all the chants that night had a slight Scottish dialect, with the crowd dropping the r in Bangers.
“I don’t want to take credit for anything,” Cumming says. “I want other people to make up their own chants as well. We had some kids at the last game, and they were coming in with ideas, and I said, yeah, yeah, yeah, let’s do it.”
They’re figuring out the stadium
Like at Pickles games where kids run wild on the berm, children at the Bangers game were playing pickup games of soccer and tag off to the side of the field. But compared to the wide-open, public Lents Park, the infrastructure feels mazelike, with fans following pink sausage decals on the concrete, leading them to different seating sections or food stands. At the first two home games in May, the team struggled to make announcements loud enough to fill the space, Miller says, and had to do some audio troubleshooting. The acoustics seem fine tonight. Also in full force: a tattoo truck parked out front and theme nights at home games (June 23 is “Grills, Gays and Theys Night” for Pride month.)
Tim Farrell watched the game with a new Bangers scarf draped around his neck, enjoying a popcorn and a beer. He called the University of Oregon’s Autzen Stadium “constrained” compared to Walker Stadium. But since Farrell knows it has the same ownership as the Pickles, he has faith they’ll figure it out.
“After having been to Pickles games, I wanted to see kids play and have a good time,” he says. “It’ll take a year or two to get the fan base and environment, but I think they’ll get there.”
GO: Portland Bangers at UO Portland Stadium, 2800 NE Liberty St., 503-775-3080, portlandbangers.com. Home games 7 pm Monday, June 23, and 6 pm Wednesday, July 9. $23–$40.