Howdy crazy folks!
I'm sure this post will fall on mostly deaf eyes, since everyone is concentrating on BeauGate, but there's tons of news and happenings in the world of the Portland Timbers to report! Nevermind that I forgot I'm across the international dateline and woke up too early on the wrong day to watch the inauguration, I'm blogging through the pain and cranking out the news items!
The Timbers have signed new players, A Timbers Legend passes away, notes from the MLS2PDX task force meetings and why our MLS effort fails upward but is in danger from BeauGate, after the jump.
I usually lead with MLS expansion news, but lets talk about the here and now first.
The Passing of a Legend
Former Aston Villa Player, Welsh International and 2 time Timbers manager Vic Crowe passed away on Wednesday. I wasn't even alive when Crowe turned this small berg into Soccer City USA in the first years of the NASL Timbers, but
Euphoric crowds swelled as the 1975 team, mostly British-born players assembled by Crowe, piled up victories. After a late-season win in New York, "We thought we were the greatest," Anderson said. The players were partying in a bar when Crowe ran into them, smiled and said hello....he sure sounds like my kind of guy. No word yet from the Timbers Front Office if there will be any remembrance this season, but I hope that the club and the fans pay our respects to one of the men who made Portland what it is today."The next day, he ran us ragged in St. Louis," Anderson said. "If we had any beer in us, it was gone in an hour. The humidity ... We never saw a ball. He just ran us. And he just kept smirking."
Fulfilling the desires of every Timbers fan who knows anything about soccer, PTFC re-signed defender Cameron Dunn, who swooped in just after midseason last year, unseated Justin Thompson for a starting spot and scored his first goal in a professional game. Dunn's a quality back with speed to rival Scot Thompson as well as great positioning. I'm a happy boy to see him re-sign.
ABBA comes to Portland:
As I mentioned in my last column, PTFC has finished signing midfielder Johan Claesson, but surprised me by also picking up his teammate, forward Antouman Jallow. Jallow played college soccer at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and played professionally in Sweden after ignoring the fact he'd been drafted by the MLS. No word yet if Chess the Musical will be played pre-game, but I, for one, sure hope so.
Poaching the extinct:
After the Atlanta Silverbacks "decided" not to field a Senior Men's team for the 2009, season, USL franchises that aren't totally gutless swept in for Atlanta's now unemployed talent. The Timbers signed Midfielder Tony McManus who logged 156 appearances with the Silverbacks since 2004, and midfielder/forward Jason McLaughlin, who scored 6 goals in 30 appearances in 2008.
New Edition Additions:
The Timbers picked up midfielder Brian Farber, an Idaho native and Oregon State Alumnus, who spent last season with the Minnesota Thunder, scoring 7 goals, and seems to play indoor soccer every offseason. Also in this week's catch is Keita Mandjou (or Mandjou Keita, depending on who you ask), a Guinean forward who won the Malaysia Super League Golden Boot in 2006, although after consulting the internet I'm still not sure if winning the Malaysia Super League Golden Boot is any harder than typing it out.
7 Signings! That's a big day for any team. This brings the total signed roster to 13, so lets review (new players in bold:
Keepers:
none
Defenders:
Cameron Knowles, Scot Thompson, Cameron Dunn
Midfielders:
Miguel Guante, Lawrence Olum, Kiki Lara, Bryan Little, Johan Claesson, Tony McManus, Brian Farber
Forwards:
Takayuki Suzuki*, Antouman Jallow, Jason McLaughlin (m/f), Keita Mandjou
We're beginning to shape up like a normal Gavin Wilkinson team—no depth in the back (we don't have a starting four yet, I imagine we're waiting to hear if Leo Griffin will snag a ride with an MLS squad), a glut of defensive minded midfielders, and some forwards from far away of whom no one's ever heard. We did sign some veteran USL talent, who give us proven scorers/performers at this level, and they help the young/foreign players adjust to the league and the often terrifyingly shitty facilities/officiating.
What should we expect before the season begins? With the death of the MLS Reserves division, on-the-cusp-of-MLS talent will drop our way close to the beginning of the season as MLS teams trim their squads before the beginning of their season (MLS=March, USL=late April). We need at least 5 defenders, but I think that our midfield is about as crowded as it will get. We have no goalkeepers under contract, it seems, which obviously needs to be remedied.
With all the new faces, the biggest question is who will step up and become our field general? Andrew Fucking Gregor held that role for the last few seasons, before pouting his way into a trade to Rochester (and burning the hawthorne bridge on his way out), and Chris Brown slid back from forward to try to fill that role, with limited success.
Here is the Timbers official press release.
Task Force meetings continue, and numerous documents have been released to the public for our perusal: Official Notes from Meeting 1 (it's fun to match with our Liveblog), Official notes from Meeting 2, 5 year history of the Rose Quarter with accompanying financial chart and Merritt Paulson's Letter to the Task Force and City Council with accompanying financial chart, which seems to be missing the grand totals, so prepare to do some mental math with rather large numbers. Just in from Dave Logsdon are the notes from meeting 3 and the propsed agenda for meeting 4.
I'm not around to attend the task force meetings, so I asked one of the Timbers Army founding fathers and MLStoPDX.com webmaster Jeremy Finnegan Wright to share his thoughts about meetings 2 and 3.
After a rough second meeting the MLS/Triple AAA Task Force finally began to focus and ask the right questions and get more specific answers in the third meeting this past Tuesday.Thanks Finn. I'm sure you'll be floating around in the comments to answer questions. Portland's plans may be plodding along, but our competition continues to thin out...For most of the second Task Force meeting the members appeared to flail about searching for direction. There were more questions than answers. What exactly are we supposed to be recommending? Are we giving siting recommendations for the baseball park or merely our opinion on each site? How much will this really cost? And, can someone please explain the damn offside rule to me?
The tenor of the questions in the second meeting seemed to focus on the Beavers side of the equation and the financial metrics of a baseball stadium at Lents or the Memorial Coliseum site. Unfortunately, the representatives from Shortstop LLC (Merritt Paulson's ownership group) came prepared to answer questions about the PGE Park portion of the deal. Everyone left frustrated.
The third meeting can be summarized with one word: numbers. On a day when all of City Hall was thrown into a hurricane of revelations and recrimination (I jokingly asked the assembled phalanx of TV cameras outside if they would like me to do an interview about MLS and Portland, they didn't get it) it was a relief to hear the soothing tones of David Logsdon go over the current financials of PGE Park and the projected numbers post remodel with a MLS team. In short: the city is losing a little money now, it will make a little under the Paulson proposal. Questions were asked and more numbers were presented by various consultants and Shortstop LLC folks. The take away from this meeting is the numbers pencil out for investing $40 million over 30 years to remodel PGE Park to MLS standards. The big question that still hangs over this task force is the future of the Beavers and their stadium. Stay tuned.
Which brings me to my larger point: there is a basic question that both task force members and the greater public are failing to ask in regards to the PGE Park remodel. What happens if we don't agree to invest in PGE Park? The people of Portland own that stadium. What happens if we continue to fail to invest in our publicly held infrastructure? To increase its value?
We get the Memorial Coliseum. Logsdon revealed during Tuesday's meeting that the taxpayers spend half a million dollars a year to just keep the systems of that crumbling building operating. We own a building far past its due date that limps along with occasional Winter Hawks games but in general it has become 'a problem to solve'.
PGE Park cannot be allowed to slide into a similar state. It Is a crown jewel of stadiums in an era where we have suburban behemoths surrounded by acres of parking. It is unique and beautiful and deserves our investment.
If we invest in it today it will continue to serve us for years to come.
...Because everybody else is a Wanker!
St. Louis principal Jeff Cooper has admitted that their huge, 400 acre mixed use mall/suburban hell development that happens to also have a soccer stadium in it lacks the funds to go ahead. Cooper was always cagey about his financing before revealing Albert Pujols as a marquee investor, but not even The Magic Pujols has enough liquidity to make this thing float. This is obviously troubling to Commissioner Garber and company.
Atlanta's fake candidacy for an expansion team has crumbled much like Paris Hilton's fake run for president. I don't think many people took Atlanta's bid seriously, but Arthur Blank has done a lot for the MLS, so he'll be handed a franchise with a bow on top at a later date, if he so desires. Blank's probably a little sore from Arena Football's failure....I mean 'year off.' Everybody in the ATL seeems to want a vacation...
Miami's owner continues to be a chipper and demanding sumbitch as he continues to insist that the MLS brass not only hand him expansion franchise but allow them to begin competing in the MLS in 2010, not 2011. Stadium issues remain, as evidenced by the coach of the Chilean Senior Men's National Team refusing to play on the FieldTurf at FIU stadium, favoring a college football stadium in Ft. Lauderdale, but Claure is undaunted
“Miami has all the ingredients,” says Claure, whose extensive cell-phone and communications businesses are based in the city. “Fort Lauderdale is not the place to play soccer. They don’t have a stadium with the perfect capacity. We have all the ingredients, it’s up to us to make it work.Commissioner Garber doesn't like the stadium as much, saying it needs to be 'professionalized', but the lure of FC Barcelona's participation has many under informed eurosnob soccer fans expecting Bojan Krkic and the other 18-and-under stars from Barca to be in Miami MLS. While they may put aging stars out to stud on South Beach, Barcelona is under no obligation to do... well anything, really, and there are better places to groom talent than the MLS. The MLS contract system really won't help Barca develop talent, since all contracts are held by the league and allocated to teams by a system that fewer than 10 people in the world understand, so any young stud Barca wants on their Miami team may well end up playing for Toronto or Kansas Citehhh or even the Timbers, and Barca will end up paying a kings ransom to get them back.“[FIU] spent $54 million to build a stadium and they play only five home games. It’s brand new. It might not be the most beautiful stadium, but it’s a B-plus. We are in West Miami, where all the non-Cuban Hispanics live.”
Nevertheless, the 'built and ready' stadium puts Miami at the top of the heap if Philadelphia's team folds with a half-built stadium (likely), or at least needs to delay their opening season (more likely). The Philadelphia brass have already scaled back the grandeur of their Chester County sports complex down to something rather generic looking. If you're interested in naming this team that may never exist, philly.com is holding a poll. The options: Philadelphia SC, AC Philadelphia, Philadelphia City and Philadelphia Union all lack a certain je ne sais quoi. I propose the Philadelphia Why Can't Us?
Vancouver certainly won't be ready to play in 2010. They'll barely have picked up all the Molson cans after Bode Miller comes to town to start play in 2011—but they claim to have cemented financing for their grandiose adjustable roof project for BC Place, which, as I've mentioned before, is pretty damn cool.
So where does that leave Portland? As Finn laid out above, the data is there and the task force seems to be chewing through it. Our competition is down to Vancouver, Miami and Ottawa, (assuming St. Louis doesn't find a $400million angel) although there's been nary a peep from the Ottawans about this, so I'm continuing to count them out. If Philadelphia fully fails, there's room enough for all of us!
If not, the competition is still fierce, and BeauGate complicates things significantly for Portland. A weak or deposed Mayor and the 'independent investigations' that may take place will cause the stadium bond issue will not get the full attention of the city council, if there is a full city council to vote on the damn thing. I'm not alone. Discussions rage on the Timbers Army Message Board, and the Baldy with a cleft asshole at the Oregonian weighed in in his hump the spare wheel on every bandwagon way:
"[the Adams scandal] makes me wish I could bring MLS commissioner Don Garber and league president Mark Abbott back to Oregon this week. He should see that the real clout for soccer in Portland does not lie with a pompous politician but with all the truthful, hardworking and passionate people who still support the bid."Mop up all his Rick Reilly wannabe sentimentality and ignore all the hate he's poured on footie over the years and he's right. Portland's passionate fans like me are the reason MLS should come to town, but we may end up in the cold. Because the MLS timeline for awarding these franchises is tight, if we don't see action from the City Council by early March, we may be unceremoniously dumped like Beau Breedlove on his 19th birthday. (What? too soon?) At the core, No Mayor Sam, no MLS, and that is why I'm pissed about BeauGate.
We'll be watching the wires about the 2009 season and the BeauGate vs. functioning city government battle. The Portland MLS bid might continue to fail upwards as competitors fall to the wayside, so watch for the next wrap up. I'll leave you with a frank interview with USL Commissioner Francisco Marcos discussing Soccer in America and the Election of Barack Obama.
Adieu from your Timbers Blogger at large!
