Boise Road Trip, Anyone?
By: Bob Kellett | May 21st, 2008
From the huh? dept…
A paper in Idaho is claiming that the Portland Timbers will be playing on a field inside the Meridian Speedway in Boise on July 6 against an unnamed opponent. Considering the factual errors in the story, I’d be surprised if this were true, but the club does have an open window on the schedule that week and maybe by then the Speedway will have grown some grass. From the Idaho Statesman:
Gonzalez said the Timbers are scheduled to play at the speedway July 6, while a reserve team from MLS franchise Real Salt Lake will play a Mexican reserve team in August. A September match featuring two Mexican teams also is in the works, Gonzalez said.
Might this be a reward for the 7,123,453 miles that uber Timbers fan Pounder has logged driving back and forth between Portland and Boise over the years?
Ah, politics
I know that the primary reason you come to this blog is because of its cutting edge political analysis. Mark my word: Lyndon LaRouche will be the next President of the United States. Now that is taken care of, how will last night’s local elections impact the Timbers and their future MLS plans? There are five votes on the Portland City Council and if public funding is going to be used for renovating PGE Park and/or building a new stadium, there must be at least three ayes. We know that Randy Leonard might be on board with the plan. We know that new Council member Nick Fish ran on a platform that included a desire to build a new soccer stadium. Whether or not he would want to fund the renovation of PGE Park is still up in the air, but he is a soccer fan and is open to the idea. Our new mayor Sam Adams hasn’t come out on record one way or the other. My sense is it might be a hard sell to get him on board, but he would be a lot more open to it than the guy who he is replacing. The fourth seat is still up in the air with Amanda Fritz facing a run off. She has run on a platform of fiscal responsibility. I don’t see her going for the Paulson Plan. That leaves Dan Saltzman whose vote I can never pin down on anything, but whose chief of staff is a big soccer fan. Overall I’d say the new Council will be slightly more footy friendy, but those three votes are not yet a slam dunk, especially with the current economic environment.
Even slimier than politics
Everyone’s favorite glass-jawed keeper has been traded from San Jose to Colorado in exchange for former University of Portland defender Kelly Gray.
At least he got a free flight to France
Former Portland Timbers forward Bryan Jordan did not play in the United States U-23 team’s 3-2 loss against Turkey today in Toulon, France. The Jr. Nats take on Ivory Coast on May 25 and Italy on May 27. Both games will be shown live on Fox Soccer Channel.
We’re #16, we’re #16
Man, some of those early season MLS attendance numbers are low enough to make a skeptic wonder why cities are battling it out to join the league.
Category: Timbers Team News
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Comments
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not really sure what to think of that. playing at a racetrack in Boise on 4th of July weekend?
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500 people crashing on Pounder’s couch and eating every last crumb in his cupboard. Sounds like good times.
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I just want to see the boys play on that classy pitch! Mullets and BMXers unite!
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Tickets are $20 adv. & $25 gate…wow!
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Which ones, exactly, have you wondering why cities are battling it out to join the league?
First off, “cities” aren’t, technically speaking. Ownership groups are. (Some) municipalities have been convinced to pony up money for stadiums and infrastructure because they see it as a good deal economically (the fact is that stadiums aren’t nearly the economic engines they’re made out to be, lying somewhere between manna and boondoggle).
So, beside the fact that, as you mention, it’s early, you have to go slightly deeper than the numbers themselves for the context:
New York (13,494)…Red Bull hasn’t a clue how to market and present their team, but, seriously, that’s not much different from its past ownership groups. It’s a tough sell. Their new stadium is coming online next year (fingers crossed), and while they’re probably not going to sustain the initial 20,000 crowds longterm, they’ll be in far better economic shape because they’ll be keeping revenue as opposed to giving it to the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority.
San Jose (13,290)…helped by a 20,000+ crowd in Oakland for the return engagement of the franchise, hindered by a 10,000-seat temporary stadium. They’re getting closer to their own yard, which will help them financially.
Chivas USA (12,882)…they just don’t know what they’re doing.
Columbus (11,574)…wouldn’t worry about their finances. They’re better off at 11,500 a game than New York is at 14,000.
New England (10,822)…couldn’t care less, I don’t think. Folks who own the team control the stadium and are not that concerned, financially.
Kansas City (9,210)…in temporary digs. Ownership took enough of a leap of faith to buy the team in the first place, everything they’ve done since then points toward them being committed long term.
Attendance numbers provide a snapshot of a team’s general financial health. The context of those snapshots has changed dramatically since 1998 (when 10 of the 12 teams played in way-too-big-and-expensive football stadiums). The numbers don’t have to be at the same level they were then for teams to be doing better financially.
And THAT’S why people (not cities) are competing for MLS teams now.
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Valid points, KT. The question for someone like Merritt Paulson is whether it is worth it to pony up $40 million for an expansion team to join a league where by most estimates the majority of franchises are losing money (low attendance can do that, ya know) or to remain content with his current situation with the USL-1 Timbers, which are turning a small profit. Will the boost in attendance be enough to outweigh the initial costs and the increased operating costs that come with owning an MLS team? I don’t see how that pencils out, but I am not an accountant or in a position to drop millions on anything.
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