Portland Timbers

Soccer roots in Portland and first MLS seasons

Following England's World Cup victory in 1966, there was a significant increase in popularity of soccer in english speaking countries. The United States were heavily influenced and it paved the way for cities like Portland, Oregon to embrace the sport. The growth of professional soccer in Portland can be traced to the Portland Timbers, the city's expansion team in the top-level North American Soccer League (NASL) as an expansion team from 1975 until the club's seventh season in 1982. The club's major achievement was in their inaugural season during the league's playoffs, having won the league's division final, and runners-up in Soccer Bowl '75 losing to the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the championship match. This achievement helped to not only bring significantly more attention to the sport in Portland, but also bring more fans and more recognition to the Portland Timbers name. In 1985, F.C. Portland had established and was a charter club in the Western Soccer Alliance League and competed until folding in 1990. Professional soccer was dormant in the city until 2001, when the USL Timbers was founded and competed in Division 2 soccer in USL pro until the club folded in 2010. The USL club finished with the best record in the league in both the 2004 and 2009 regular seasons.

Back when the Portland Timbers joined the NASL in 1975, their first manager was Vic Crowe, who was Welsh and brought many of that inaugural 1975 team's players from the West Midlands of England. Numerous members of the team were on loan for the summer from clubs in that area. Chris Dangerfield was one of the members of the 1975 team on loan from the Wolverhampton Wanderers in Birmingham. Like many of his teammates, he spent his time off the pitch talking to Portlanders and was a key part of building the culture of not only soccer in Portland, but also helping the Timbers to become a key part of the identity of the city. While there is much less of a need for building awareness of soccer now in Portland as there once was, team members maintaining relationships and volunteering in the community has stuck as part of the culture of the modern era Portland Timbers.

Prior to the Timbers's first season in NASL, they made their first signing, a player named Michael 'Mick' Hoban. Hoban spent his early career in England for Aston Villa, and played a few seasons in the United States for the Denver dynamos and the Atlanta Chiefs. He was a part of that team that made it to the Soccer Bowl 75', and Hoban once said that the team were very interactive with the fans, which was unusual to him compared to his time with other teams, and he said he believed this helped build a great community. Off the field, Hoban was crucial to the growth of the Timbers attention and sport in the city. Hoban took on the role of the team's Community Relations Manager, where he strived to spread awareness for the game. He helped the team host clinics in which the rules of soccer were explained and people were given the chance to experience the game for themselves to adults and children alike. Hoban stated that they hosted around a thousand community events in the first three years. Hoban has continued his contributions to the city for years onward and as a coach for youth amateur and professional levels. The Portland Timbers acknowledged his contributions by awarding him the Ring of Honor in 2014.

The announcement of the Timbers' entry into MLS was the culmination of a nearly two-year-long process for Merritt Paulson, dating back at least to May 2007, when Paulson led a group that bought the Portland Beavers and the USL Timbers. The group included former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Meritt Paulson's father. The biggest issue for the city of Portland at that time was that due to league concerns about seating configuration, field surface and scheduling, obtaining an MLS club would require a new stadium.

In October 2007, Paulson was told PGE Park could be upgraded for about $20 million, and a new baseball stadium (with 8,000 to 9,000 seats) would cost about $30 million. By November 2008, Paulson told The New York Times he expected Portland taxpayers would spend $85 million to "build a new baseball stadium for his Beavers and renovate PGE Park—just remodeled in 2001 at a cost to taxpayers of $38.5 million—for soccer", and that in exchange, he would spend $40 million for the franchise fee to bring a new Major League Soccer team to Portland. MLS was in support of the proposal, wanting to continue to expand the number of owners in the league (for a while, all of its teams were owned by three men: Philip Anschutz, Lamar Hunt, and Robert Kraft).