Trouble down south: 'flaming car wreck' pits Portland's baseball Beavers against soccer Timbers

June 20, 10:47 AMSeattle Soccer ExaminerDavid Falk

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Talk about a long, drawn out soap opera. The 'deal' to get Portland's PGE Park updated for a possible 2011 entry into Major League Soccer by the Portland Timbers has more characters with agendas and more twists and turns than As the World Turns could ever dream up.

I can't possibly catch you all the way up on how many changes of direction and how much political wrangling has gone on in this saga, but the basics are that Major League Soccer requires PGE Park to be remodeled for soccer (and Portland State Vikings football) only. Permanent stands would mean the end of baseball at the historic venue. If baseball stays at PGE, MLS says the Timbers will not get a club in 2011. This means the Beavers of the Pacific Coast League (Triple A baseball) need a new home.

Adding to the fiasco is the fact that the Beavers and Timbers are owned by the same man, Merritt Paulsen. In his search for new homes for both of his clubs he has ended up seeing them pitted against one another.

There has been tension and discord from the very beginning, with members of the city council pitted against each other and / or choosing sides with the Portland Mayor or their local constituents over the stadium issues. The city's general sports fan population seem bemused by the tussle and more interested in Portland's status as moving towards being a truly 'Major League' city. The Beavers don't help with that, and some Portlanders don't think MLS does, either. Then you have the vocal minority: Timbers fans full of passion and desiring to see their current support rewarded with a 'move up.' Portlanders who don't count themselves as sports fans have also stepped up to flex their political muscles in the saga, with many suggesting using public funds for a stadium is not wise right now, if ever.

In today's Oregonian editorial by Anna Griffin, she states "In my scorebook, blame for this flaming car wreck rests squarely at City Hall...Now we're back where we started, or worse. When the dust clears and the votes are tallied, Portland could easily lose both Major League Soccer and an owner committed to making baseball work."

A September 2009 deadline from MLS is supposedly looming over the whole charade.

Could Portland end up losing it's MLS chance this time around? Are the Beavers doomed to leave the Rose City?

Seattle and our soccer fans take a lot of smack for using Qwest Field and having some kind of corporate-tinged mentality. After watching what is going on in Portland, who can't see Seattle's business and pro-sports acumen as anything but a blessing?