"Minor" soccer league coming apart
We blogged last week about how Nike is bailing on its majority ownership of the soccer league in which the Portland Timbers play. Now a bunch of owners in that league are threatening to break out and start a league of their own, because they don't like the way the existing association is being run. Meanwhile, the Timbers, who will be moving up to the "major" league in a couple of seasons, say they'll remain faithful to the current league -- at least for another year.
Ah, instability in American pro soccer -- just what Portland's taxpayers need to hear about as they plunk down eight figures to remodel the city's stadium for soccer only, and throw pro baseball forever out on the street. It's going to be a big hit, people -- you can trust City Hall on this one.
| Posted at 11:20 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (9)
Let's see... who will the Timbers be playing next year and how many games? And who will the Beavers be playing next year and how many games? Just follow the numbers.
Posted by LucsAdvo | September 3, 2009 6:15 AM
Oh wait, this time it's different.
Posted by Steve | September 3, 2009 8:25 AM
Somehow, I can hear Sam Adams impersonating Neil from the Britcom The Young Ones: "That's not true! Flares are coming back! My horoscope said so!"
Posted by Texas Triffid Ranch | September 3, 2009 9:54 AM
If anything the fact that the USL is instable should be a reason to celebrate our rise to MLS. We are the pride of the USL and if we didn't agree to renovate PGE park we may lose pro soccer in Portland.
Posted by Mike | September 3, 2009 12:05 PM
"if we didn't agree to renovate PGE park we may lose pro soccer in Portland."
Reminds me of Dorothy Parker's query "How can they tell?" when she was informed of Calvin Coolidge's death.
Posted by George Anonymuncule Seldes | September 3, 2009 12:46 PM
Let the people who want MLS in Portland pay for the MLS stadium in Portland. Don't expect the other 95% of us to pay for it. Sounds fair to me.
Posted by LucsAdvo | September 3, 2009 10:51 PM
Why is there no mention on this site about the remarkable success the Timbers are having both on the field and in the stands. In the past five games at PGE park the Timbers have drawn an average of about 12,000 fans for minor league soccer. I think it was only a few months ago when you were all preaching the lack of demand for soccer in Portland.
Posted by mike | September 4, 2009 12:26 AM
No one here has ever denied the Timbers' popularity. We have pointed out the anemic attendance at Beavers baseball some nights. The problem with MLS is that the whole league may wind up folding. Seattle and Portland will be fine, but not if there's no league.
Posted by Jack Bog | September 4, 2009 8:06 AM
12,000 out of 2.2 million people in the PDX metro area might be going to late season Timbers' games. So that's about .5% of the population going to see soccer... That's really a huge draw. /*sarcasm mode off */
So again.... why do the rest of us need to pay for this?
Posted by LucsAdvo | September 5, 2009 10:37 PM