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Don’t Be Surprised If Providence Park Is In Play

P

Pounder

Active member
https://es.pn/3rzc4LY

There’s about 100 things I could link here. 100 paragraphs I could write, too, at minimum.

I kind of doubt Merritt Paulson will be able to keep the Timbers and Thorns. This is partially because one sponsor has already dropped, two more are demanding change or they will drop as well, and while many suspect Alaska Airlines may have been a critical party to induce Paulson to fire Gavin Wilkinson and Mike Golub, Timbers Army and related groups are in the middle of a pressure campaign to get Alaska to go further. Probably need to do the same with Providence next.

Does the next owner make it easier for Portland State? Can’t say. Some owners (even in MLS) see the value in greater use of their stadia. The possibility is there.

We can talk about some really funky possibilities if Paulson decides to divest himself of the Thorns without selling the Timbers. In Kansas City, the womens team KC Current finally started using the Sporting KC stadium this year, but are about to break ground on an 11,000-seat stadium of their own just off downtown (much closer to downtown than the SKC facility). Or would the Thorns pay Paulson’s rent? Or go to Hillsboro?

There’s a wildcard… MLS probably won’t help. The league kicked out Real Salt Lake owner Dell Loy Hansen for less than what the FO here is accused of doing, but the league supposedly likes their relationship with Merritt’s dad. There’s definitely an in joke about any of us calling Merritt’s dad, BTW.

Should mention Bill Oram’s columns on the subject have been great. https://www.oregonlive.com/portland-thorns/2022/10/bill-oram-merritt-paulson-must-sell.html

I nearly put this in the general chat forum instead of here. I kind of want to vent. But I’m thinking the door is about to open ever so slightly.
 
When/if we ever get an agreement to use Providence Park again, I would hope we get something in writing and not the sort of handshake agreement year by year that plagued us in the last years there.

I also think Beavs beat writer Nick Daschell wrote some unflattering and untrue comments on our situation with Providence Park and the Timbers prior to OSU's game there. The outright lie that he based his thoughts on-"PSU wanted six home football games and that was not going to happen"-was an utter fabrication and I was surprised not many people caught it. When was the last time we even had six home football games in a season? And having six home football games is certainly doable if you have your own stadium, but is nearly impossible if you do not (I'm sure we all know this). And leading up to the OSU game, Canzano made it a point that he was "pissed off" about our situation, then in the weeks afterwards, nothing. Canzano has a history of writing about being "pissed off" but not really being "pissed off". It is easy to get more "clicks" by sounding like you're going to bat for the unfortunate little man.

My proposal with the whole thing is similar to what EWU did with the old Joe Albi Stadium in Spokane back in the day. Conference schedules are set years in advance. I would like to see us take a list of our conference home games to whoever is in charge of Providence Park and tell them that we would like to play one (ONE, not all but 1) of these games at Providence Park, and let them choose which game fits into their schedule. Then, when we know (and have a written agreement) of what game will be played there, we market the hell of the game. I think in the week before the OSU game, Jonathan Smith was on every Portland sports talk show hyping the game. Also, ads were constant on the radio and TV about watching the Beavs play in Portland. And it wasn't like UCLA was coming to town, or even Boise State. It was our own conference brethren, Montana State. I think we are capable of the same marketing blitz that they did for the one game. It also gets our proverbial "foot in the door", and if the Timbers see the benefits for them, not just money-wise, but a good feeling around the city that they are "letting" PSU use the field, maybe in a few years we get two at Providence Park. In order to get to the big picture, sometimes you have to start small.
 
bigskyconf said:
When/if we ever get an agreement to use Providence Park again, I would hope we get something in writing and not the sort of handshake agreement year by year that plagued us in the last years there.

I also think Beavs beat writer Nick Daschell wrote some unflattering and untrue comments on our situation with Providence Park and the Timbers prior to OSU's game there. The outright lie that he based his thoughts on-"PSU wanted six home football games and that was not going to happen"-was an utter fabrication and I was surprised not many people caught it. When was the last time we even had six home football games in a season? And having six home football games is certainly doable if you have your own stadium, but is nearly impossible if you do not (I'm sure we all know this). And leading up to the OSU game, Canzano made it a point that he was "pissed off" about our situation, then in the weeks afterwards, nothing. Canzano has a history of writing about being "pissed off" but not really being "pissed off". It is easy to get more "clicks" by sounding like you're going to bat for the unfortunate little man.

My proposal with the whole thing is similar to what EWU did with the old Joe Albi Stadium in Spokane back in the day. Conference schedules are set years in advance. I would like to see us take a list of our conference home games to whoever is in charge of Providence Park and tell them that we would like to play one (ONE, not all but 1) of these games at Providence Park, and let them choose which game fits into their schedule. Then, when we know (and have a written agreement) of what game will be played there, we market the hell of the game. I think in the week before the OSU game, Jonathan Smith was on every Portland sports talk show hyping the game. Also, ads were constant on the radio and TV about watching the Beavs play in Portland. And it wasn't like UCLA was coming to town, or even Boise State. It was our own conference brethren, Montana State. I think we are capable of the same marketing blitz that they did for the one game. It also gets our proverbial "foot in the door", and if the Timbers see the benefits for them, not just money-wise, but a good feeling around the city that they are "letting" PSU use the field, maybe in a few years we get two at Providence Park. In order to get to the big picture, sometimes you have to start small.
Click to expand...

Actually several points I can address here.

- It may always be a year-to-year fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants agreement. The only reason the MLS regular season ends in about 17 hours from this writing- this year- is because the World Cup is in Qatar starting later in November because oil money was more important than aligning with even the bigger leagues. It’s rather nuts, World Cup is usually mid-June to mid-July. The FIFA international periods (where national teams are scheduled to play either qualifications or friendly matches) is scheduled through the summer of 2024… for now. Then the US Open Cup has to slide in. Then there’s the Womens World Cup next year and their own international periods because FIFA keeps those separate. That doesn’t mean the soccer front office here can’t make an early autumn commitment. But it’s harder to commit because there will never be an absolute set schedule. MLS is always tweaking the scheduling formula. FIFA tends to add some pressure by inferring about every other year with “you know, if you realigned your league schedule to an August-to-May format like most of the rest of the world, you’d be able to sign better talent.” It’s probable that MLS will play from the last weekend in February to early November with an early December MLS Cup in 3 out of every 4 years, but it ain’t easy to assure that. The sport requires more flexibility than what Americans are used to seeing.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Daschell “quoted” a Timbers exec for his statement.

Canzano is putting a crap-ton of energy into a joint podcast with Pac-12 guru Jon Wilner because he’s aware of what gets him the clicks. This has clued in people in other parts of the country to his pithy attempts to defend the Pac-12 and, more importantly, his click-bait tendencies. Oram seems like a refreshing change… we’ll see.

You know that Oregon State paid for the ads, right? It’s a money game. Portland State needs ads, meaning they need the money, and we’ve gone around on how to get there. The first part of the building process is a commitment that the school’s administration probably can’t make. I’d love to be wrong about that.
 
https://twitter.com/AlaskaAirNews/status/1579154884372226048

Another step made.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the days of early boarding at PDX for Alaska flights when wearing a Timbers jersey are in jeopardy.
 
https://www.wweek.com/news/2022/11/23/will-merritt-paulson-prune-the-thorns/

Great. Daddy’s fishing buddies with the commissioner.

I can tell you that nobody among the fans fighting to push Paulson out think splitting the Thorns and Timbers is a good idea. Buy the Thorns, turn around, and pay rent to Paulson? Frack no. Plus the NWSL has stated that they want to play weekends only in 2023 and I, for one, may not trust Paulson to screw with that for whatever he perceives as his benefit.
 
It’s probably time to close the lid on this despairing thread.

Part 1- News from about two weeks ago that one of the Medford high schools received artificial turf that the Timbers decided not to install in Providence Park.

Part 2- Leo Messi did not travel with his Inter Miami teammates to Atlanta for tonight’s match. Atlanta has a dome with artificial turf. As a result, the ticket market that had tickets going for minimum $500 (MLS gets a cut of resale tickets sold through their sponsor ticket system) suddenly dropped below $100.

Conclusion: Providence Park is getting grass. Though I suspect the Timbers can’t possibly have Miami on their schedule until at least 2025 because Miami was on the schedule in 2021 and 2022.
 
Pounder said:
It’s probably time to close the lid on this despairing thread.

Part 1- News from about two weeks ago that one of the Medford high schools received artificial turf that the Timbers decided not to install in Providence Park.

Part 2- Leo Messi did not travel with his Inter Miami teammates to Atlanta for tonight’s match. Atlanta has a dome with artificial turf. As a result, the ticket market that had tickets going for minimum $500 (MLS gets a cut of resale tickets sold through their sponsor ticket system) suddenly dropped below $100.

Conclusion: Providence Park is getting grass. Though I suspect the Timbers can’t possibly have Miami on their schedule until at least 2025 because Miami was on the schedule in 2021 and 2022.
Click to expand...

MLS definitely in a Messi situation. :nod:
 
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