is the goal to have hideous fights before durning after the games as the do across the pond?
All part of the hipster thing to make Portland more like...Manchester?

It might have been worse if you would have switched channels. Piers Morgan's show was on at the same time.

As an after game event they could lock the drunken opposing fans in the Memorial Coliseum for giant cage fight.

Sadly, the NFL fans are degenerating into similar fracases(sp?): look at the fights in the stands at the 'Niners - Raiders exhibition last weekend.

Sad.

Get off my lawn!

And at 8:22pm on this 24th day of August 2011, Mr. Jack Bogdanski officially became a cranky old man.

You're way late, my child.

Wait a minute. I have DirecTV and they blacked it out. You must have paid top $ for that match. Does it come with lyric sheets?

It was just fine on Comcast. A buddy of ours called DirecTV and complained, and after hassling him for quite a while, they apparently got it switched on.

I like the Timbers team. They're a lovable bunch of lads and play 'til they can barely stand. The 70th minute on is usually a prayer meeting as they try and hold on like tonight.
The fans are into it, even after withstanding some last minute setbacks that would rip the nut sack off a bull elephant, so to see the enthusiasm stay high is admirable. One game ended with booing but I think overall this has been a pretty amazing year. The LA Galaxy game was sweet, and tonight they seemed to be getting some breaks finally.

This does not change my feelings about the Paulson money machine. If anything I've learned more about what Henry did to the world economy, and I think he's lucky he's not playing soccer in the prison exercise yard.

The misery Henry Paulson has caused has even taken an ironic twist. Jeld-Wen paid the Paulsons handsomely for the naming rights. They finagled Portlanders out of the naming rights money of our own stadium, but get this: Thanks to the economy Henry Paulson helped to destroy, Jeld-Wen is in serious financial difficulty, selling junk bonds to deal with 1.2 billion in debt caused by the housing plunge.

You know, the one Paulson lobbied to allow Wall Street to gamble on. That's the trademark of what Taibbi calls the "vampire squid" of Wall Street: Even after they've hurt you badly - and Portland's economy is on that list with everyone else - you end up giving them more money.

So love the team but cringe when you think about how the financial power behind it - the Timbers minority owner - is one of the leading culprits in our current worldwide financial disaster.

Do they have a Timbers chant for that?

I am going to say this once and only once.... *soccer sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!* What a boring game with utterly rude fans (I've been to one match and that was before the Timbers were MLS and it was because my date wanted to go to a game).

Twilight is like Soccer in that a bunch of people run around for a couple hours, nobody scores, and millions of fans tell you that you just don't understand.

Why do the uniforms need to have sponsor names on them? Why are half the team names a Euro/Mexi copy cat? Why do fans copy Euro customs with the odd apparel and Softball chants?

By not living in PGE's territory, you have missed this opportunity to participate in the Timbers boondoggle:

"Win the ultimate Timbers package!
Since the Portland Timbers wear green and PGE renewable power options are green, it’s only natural to team up for a special giveaway. Now through Aug. 5, sign up for a PGE renewable power option or add more renewable power to your account, and you will be entered for a chance to win the ultimate Timbers fan experience at JELD-WEN Field. One winner will receive four VIP tickets, a pre-game visit to the field, an autographed Timbers jersey and more!"

KGW aired a story last night about the Timbers opening up 1,600 seats for the final two matches of the season.

Many thoughts come to mind; primarily that the situation, in general, surrounding the Timbers and Portland's mainstream media has become so Orwellian.

Here you have a situation in which approximately 4,700 seats have been closed off all season long because of grossly inadequate concourse, restroom, and concession facilities. But now, suddenly, 1,600 seats are being opened up, even though nothing has changed, and all of those spectator facilities remain grossly inadequate.

So, how did we end up with a "renovated" stadium in which 20% of the total seating capacity is unusable? Why didn't all of engineering data come out in public hearings before the project was approved?

And by the way, concealing or misrepresenting material facts in connection with a project for which the city council has authorized the use of the city's bonding authority is a felony under Oregon's securities fraud law, ORS 59.135.

Did the KGW reporter ask any intelligent questions? Of course not.

Instead, what you ended up with is Mike Golub, the Timbers spokesperson putting out his predictable spin that somehow this is all double-good.

Re: " Thanks to the economy Henry Paulson helped to destroy"

Bill McD,

This must never be forgotten. Just yesterday:

"WILMINGTON, Del., Aug 24 (Reuters) - Shareholders of Washington Mutual Inc made their final pitch against the company's $7 billion reorganization plan on Wednesday, repeating accusations the bankruptcy was tainted by insider trading."
http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/Legal/News/2011/08_-_August/WaMu_judge_weighs_closing_arguments/

"Delaware Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath began the hearing by saying she was 'a long way toward an opinion.'"

The songs and chanting is very European. If you've watched an English Premier League soccer match, you'll see that their fans are doing the same. It's really fun to watch, as when chances happen, the crowd truly reacts.

It's all part of the atmosphere. Do you like the random talking that happens during a baseball game? I'd rather hear a crowd being into the game (soccer) than just some white noise of people talking about who knows what (baseball).

A teensy correction that won't change anyone's minds:

"They finagled Portlanders out of the naming rights money of our own stadium ..."

Actually, in naming-rights deals, industry standard is that the money goes to the team, presumably on the grounds that nobody'd pay for naming rights to an empty stadium.

Re: "The songs and chanting is very European. "

Yes, Christian, this is well known:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcFuHGHfYwE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42i-bL5bZuE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8-qFgsTCmY&feature=related

Yes, Christian,
"It's all part of the atmosphere."

Gardiner Menefree HAHA wow.

I went to the game last night - my first Timbers game, and I enjoyed the Timbers Army. Granted, I wasn't sitting in the middle of them - more off to the side with a slightly obstructed view - but still close enough. I appreciate their enthusiasm and appreciation for a game. Even if it is a really boring game where everyone runs around for 90 minutes, and one goal got scored. The crowd was really the only interesting thing going on.

Not a soccer fan, but if I was I would not put a penny in Paulson's pocket. Vote with your feet.

Ah Soccer- where "chances" happen. That happened to me many times making the rounds back in the day, but I always preferred to score.

As for the probably criminal "renovation" where you can't fill the place because there's nowhere to piss- especially when the crowd is about as full of piss as you can get- now that is beyond ironic.

I was at last night's game because I had a free ticket. The constant Timber Army singing is annoying, but what really irks me is when fans sitting immediately in front of you wave their scarves over their heads so you can't see anything on the field. I will give the Timbers credit for playing hard and selling a lot more seats (at least per game) than the Beavers ever did, but 90 minutes of play with only 1 point scored is not my idea of a fun spectator event.

Obviously it's a personal preference thing, but I would far prefer to attend a Timbers game with fan singing and chanting throughout, than a Blazers game with blaring, piped-in "music" to cover-up the fact that most fans are sitting on their hands until the 4th quarter. At that point, they get excited about free chalupas.

As for the game itself, soccer's not for everyone. I found baseball boring, until I took the time to actually learn about it - the strategy, the field positioning, the head-to-head match-ups. Same way with soccer, where a goal actually means something and the first half of play is just as important as the second.

Peter Apanel: In their proposal to city council the Timbers said they'd sell 14,000 tickets a game (which bojack called their "rosiest of estimates" at the time). The Timbers never made any claims about what they'd set max capacity at, and given that they'd kept those seats tarped since Paulson bought the USL team (because of inadequate concourse and concessions space) and that they've sold well over their 14,000/per game estimate, I'd hardly say they misrepresented themselves.

I, too, despise the blaring racket at the Blazer games. But I'd rather hear Queen singing "We Will Rock You" at too many decibels than a choir of hipster drunks trying to act Euro.

Then you must not like watching any soccer game played almost anywhere in the world. It's much louder if you watch European or Latin American matches(or World Cup) where basically the entire crowd is chanting and singing.

Looking forward to to column this winter where Jack attends a hockey game and complains that a fight broke out.

Wouldn't it behoove Portland taxpayers to promote the daylights out of the Timbers? How else is all that public debt going to get repaid?