All-Star Break Boredom Poll - MLB Expansion

[Ceetar]

comparatively the "easy to get to" (it's along the PATH line which is no different than taking a train to Penn Station and taking a random subway to the UWS or the Financial district, but apparently it scares people) Red Bull Stadium was at ~60% capacity for the playoff game last thursday.

edit: this is unfair, didn't realize the PATH still wasn't running. geeze.

[Frayed Knot]

The Portland team is a fairly new entry in MLS but it has proven to be extremely popular up there in its short life. Seattle too (which makes for a nice rivalry) but even they aren't to the same extent as Portland.

- Part of it is kids with a new toy syndrome
- Part is that it's been a one-team town up there for so long and this gives them a 2nd one in a different season
- the soccer-only stadium helps, 30K (or whatever) have a lot more fun in a 30K stadium than 30K will have in a 70K stadium
- the college sports up there (Oregon State & U-Oregon - aka Nike Univ) are only semi-big in football but neither is right in Portland
- and I suspect that being a bit off the beaten track gives them the feeling that they're ignored by the big eastern media (partly true) so they'll just go out and find their own thing as opposed to following the trend. Even track is still big up there.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

It's not just the popularity of soccer in Portland, but that this writer thinks MLS would get in the way of MLB expansion.

[Ceetar]

Mets � Willets Point wrote: It's not just the popularity of soccer in Portland, but that this writer thinks MLS would get in the way of MLB expansion.

only in the financial sense of 'stealing' the stadium and re-renovating it.

[Edgy MD]

The Portland franchise in the NASL was also successful --- perhaps second in fan support only to the Cosmos --- and both the name and the logo of the MLS franchise comes from the NASL forerunner.

That team went to the NASL finals in year one and the excitement was so palpable that the city nickname of "Soccer City USA" caught on. Problem was that making the finals your first year can be a letdown when you never get that far again.

Notable NASL Timbers included Clyde Best and John Bain.

To keep this in the baseball forum, it's worth noting that among those trying to wreck their joy was Vancouver Whitecaps defender Mark Nickeas.

[metirish]

Must be something in the air up that way because anytime I have watched a Seattle Sounders game the football stadium looks near capacity...