TOW recently spoke with Garrett Dittfurth of Portland’s Timbers Army, to learn more about the scene in Portland, the history of the Timbers Army, and the excitement ahead of their entry into MLS in 2011. And by the way, don’t be surprised if the Portland-Seattle rivalry is immediately the most intense in MLS.
Garrett tells the story himself…
When the original NASL Timbers came into the league in 1975 the response from Portland’s fans was overwhelming.
I’ve heard one of the old timers who was around during that year tell me that when the Timbers scored you could hear the crowd at the old Civic Stadium (now PGE Park) all the way down to the waterfront. During that year Soccer City USA was given to Portland as a moniker.
I’m pretty typical of a normal supporter. The first few games I attended I observed everything from afar.
It took me 4 or 5 matches before I decided to wade into the TA. What really sticks out is the overwhelming friendliness of the TA.
At the time I joined there were around 200 or 350 regular TA members on any given night. I waded into the outskirts of the TA and before I had even found a spot to stand I had met 3 people, been given a chant sheet, and asked which EPL team I supported.
At that time, even with that little of a number, the TA could be heard throughout the stadium. They were impossible to miss. What visiting fans will probably notice right away is that PGE Park is an intimidating place to play.
Walking up to the stadium you can hear the TA singing and once you walk through the entrance and hear them in full voice it’s loud.
In my personal opinion our tifo crew is the best in North America. The displays they come up with are nothing short of ingenious.
A typical gameday experience can vary a bit depending on when the game happens. Mostly The Bitter End serves as our home bar.
Pregame and postgame you’ll find the TA there singing, celebrating, or commiserating. They’ve been very TA friendly and we like supporting businesses like that. I always like to point people to this great Culture Pulp comic drawn up by Mike Russell in 2005. It’s almost entirely accurate for today.
We’re pretty proud there have been some TA inspired beers brewed out here. Chainsaw Stout comes to mind. The Bitter End usually runs a special on Sessions Lager that I find myself partaking in quite a bit.
As far as evolution goes, many years ago a Timber Army member had a hard time watching matches at pubs, especially when other sports were on. He made a CR hotmail address and started gathering e-mails. He did this to announce meet-ups so that if more soccer fans showed up, the pubs would have to put on the matches. (this all was when social networking across the masses was just a dream). He also had the plan that if Portland got a team, that we’d already have the fans that appreciate the world football culture in place. Jim Taylor found out and the rest is history. Jim Taylor was the phenomenal former GM of the Timbers.
I wouldn’t say we have had controversies, but I’m going to be blunt here. There are a few writers in town who are used to a very whitewashed brand of sport. They’ve been conditioned that pumped in music and recorded messages telling crowds when to cheer is how it’s supposed to be. I will say there is a huge double standard within some of the local writers in the past. They will ignore the student section at the University of Oregon chanting vulgarities at opponents regularly but write opinion pieces chastising the TA for some of their salty language. John Canzano’s opinion piece here is a good example of this.
It’s true that some of our chants do have salty language. I wouldn’t say anything that comes out of the TA is anything worse than I have heard any other sport. I’ve even heard the “b#llshit” chant coming out on a controversial call when watching some Blazer games on TV this year.
We have a great relationship with our front office. They understand that we can’t control what 2000 choose to say. None of our chant sheets we distribute contain any vulgarities. Sometimes chants just happen.
Again I have to note how amazing our tifo crew is. They dreamed up the concept of the Timber Jim-Space Needle, got in touch with the front office to see if there was any way they could pull it off, and worked over several weekends to make it happen. (Amazing video on Timber Jim here).
The TA has always had a relationship with the front office since the inception of the club in 2001. From 2001 to 2005 the front office probably would have rather just seen the TA go away. In 2005 the TA had grown to several hundred and the front office surrounded the TA with security staff to monitor language. Things weren’t good and it resulted in a boycott of section 107 (original TA section) towards the end of the 2005 season. Things were at an all time low when Merritt Paulson purchased the team. Flags were banned, banners were kept off the lower walls, etc..
Things began to change at that point (when Merritt Paulson bought the team). At first there was no interaction and then a member of the TA reached out to the front office and we were asked to get a group together to meet with the front office. Now we have semi regular meetings with the front office. Typically the meetings have Gavin Wilkinson, Merritt Paulson, Mark Kostic, and several others working in the front office as well as a several TA Liasonnaire’s. From these meetings we were allowed poles, streamers, flags, the banners were moved down, we were allowed to set up an informant table in the concourse that had chant sheets and other information about the TA, we were allowed to use the team logo in our own efforts to publicize matches, the front office allowed us to help organize meet and greets between the TA and the players, we’ve been asked to help publicize certain matches such as Necaxa, and Monarcas Morelia, and they even went to bat for us with Seattle’s front office about their treatment of us at away matches in Seattle. Most importantly Merritt has created an open relationship with the TA that didn’t exist before. They can come to us if they have an issue and we can go to them. We have established a trust that didn’t exist before.
When MLS announced Portland as the next MLS club, I stood up, yelled yes, and danced around my cube a bit the second I heard. I imagine that’s what pure unadulterated joy feels like.
I feel confident I’m speaking for the majority when I state that we feel absolutely no pressure from Seattle or Toronto. Both are amazing stories in their own right. I am constantly amazed by the marketing job Seattle’s front office managed to put together to gain all those customers that couldn’t be bothered by their USL side. We have worked hard in Portland over the years and we’re very proud of the level of support we’ve created for the USL level of competition. One can only imagine the step up in level of play will only benefit what we’ve already managed to create.
The Cascadia rivalry between Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver will be epic. I don’t think the league is going to be ready for it because they’ve never seen anything like it.
The Seattle-Portland rivalry goes back to the NASL days. Considering the geography Portland and Seattle are natural rivals. We’re just 2 1/2 hours away from each other on I-5 so the travel isn’t a problem. During the NASL period it wasn’t uncommon for 1,000+ fans to make the trip on I-5 to watch an away game.
Currently you hear ESPN call Seattle the hotbed of soccer in America whenever they’re on TV. Obviously they’ve managed to turn out a lot of people in their first year as a MLS club.
Portland has a very interesting political climate. The stadium is happening. PGE Park is a publically owned stadium that was donated by the Multnomah Athletic Club. When they donated the stadium to the city a first buyer clause was put into the deal, which means if the city were to sell they would have to offer the stadium to the Multnomah Athletic Club. I can’t speculate what the MAC would do but I will say that the land PGE Park sits on is probably worth far more as condominiums than a stadium just money wise.
Essentially Merritt Paulson is a renter of PGE Park. If you were a renter and lived in an apartment would you install a dishwasher, remodel the bathroom, and fix up the furnace on your dime? What Merritt is assuring is that he will provide a higher rent tenant, and a more stable tenant.
Something that is hard for others to grasp about Portland is that we’re extremely passionate about who we support. You’ll see it once in a while when a national basketball writer says something about the Blazers. Take Bill Simmons for example. The guy has been bashing Greg Oden since the day he was drafted. He apologized after spending a few days in Portland. The fan base here is just more loyal to our team than anywhere I’ve ever been. That mentality translates over to the Timbers.
The TA has it’s hand in a lot of baskets around town. Here are a few for example: Youth Soccer Clubs, Hooper Detox Substance Abuse Treatment Center, Planned Parenthood, Oregon Humane Society, Habitat for Humanity, Outdoor School, Meals on Wheels, Special Olympics of Oregon, Friends of Trees, Multnomah County Libraries. We also are in the preliminary stages of planning a community based service effort funded by the Timbers Army.
What would I like to see in 20 years? I’d like to see 20,000 standing at PGE all of whom consider themselves members of the TA.
Images via NASLJerseys, CDN, OregonLive, Boston, Timbers, Flickr, Flickr, Flickr, A-League, Flickr, ByronAlvarez, PortlandSportsman, PortlandMLS2011, Flickr, TimberJim, OregonLive, OregonLive, Flick, CraigMitchellDyer, OregonLive
