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October 10, 2007
Even if Seattle's in, Portland could join the party
The league's not confirming it, and it's likely they won't until the press conferences at MLS Cup, but it's looking more and more like Seattle will be joining MLS.
The latest story pointing in that direction notes that Paul Allen, noted Northwest gazillionaire and the co-founder of Microsoft, has joined Seattle Sounders owner Adrian Hanauer and movie-studio executive Joe Roth in an effort to land an MLS expansion side. The bad news, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, is that "an MLS team would play its home games at Qwest Field with no immediate plans for a soccer-specific stadium."
The story continues:
It has long been thought the MLS would only enter a market if plans existed for a separate soccer-specific stadium with a grass field, but Qwest Field was built specifically to fit MLS standards and is fit for a club, even with FieldTurf.
We're not wild about either MLS teams playing in NFL stadiums or about fake grass, but even those particular clouds may have silver linings. With Allen's deep pockets behind the club, who knows what might be done to fill Qwest's 67,000 seats? Could one of the big names of world soccer sell enough tickets to merit his pay? A 2003 match at Qwest between Manchester United and Celtic sold out, so it may be interesting to see whether Seattle's MLS side follows the Kraft example in New England and closes off the upper tier of the stadium or if they make a big signing and try to sell out the whole place.
Meanwhile, Portland's Oregonian newspaper reports today that even if Seattle gets an MLS team, that wouldn't preclude Portland from joining the league.
Fans have speculated for years that PGE Park, Portland's downtown stadium which currently hosts the USL-1 Timbers and the minor league baseball Beavers, would make a great home for an MLS side. The sticking point has always been the fact that the stadium was shared with baseball. There may be a solution at hand, however.
Portland Timbers owner Merritt Paulson, who is negotiating with MLS to bring a team to Portland, said PGE Park could be updated to league standards for no more than $20 million, much less than the cost of building a new facility.Merritt Paulson, the son of U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, also owns the minor-league baseball Portland Beavers. Henry Paulson would likely own a piece of an MLS team in Portland, should the city be granted one, Merritt Paulson said.
"Assuming a number of things fall into place, I think there's reason for optimism in terms of our chances," Merritt Paulson said. "A Portland and Seattle potential rivalry would be great for the league and the Pacific Northwest."
The Timbers, however, would most likely need to relocate if Portland were to gain an MLS franchise, Paulson said.
Sharing PGE Park with a baseball team such as the Portland Beavers "would present significant challenges," said Courtemanche, the MLS senior vice president. But Paulson said he is open to exploring the idea of building a new 8,000- to 9,000-seat stadium for the Beavers elsewhere in the city.
We saw both Portland and Seattle fans making road trips to California Victory matches in San Francisco. Bring MLS teams to those cities, and we're sure that Earthquake fans would make the trek.
Posted by Jay at October 10, 2007 08:06 AM