Effective immediately, the Rose City Riveters, the Timbers Army, and the 107IST call on our members to boycott all concessions inside Providence Park and PTFC official team merchandise across all platforms.
The Rose City Riveters and the Timbers Army support the players of the Portland Thorns, Portland Timbers, NWSL, MLS, and worldwide.
This past week has been harrowing as we learned the extent of abuse and suppression that has taken place in Portland. It is clear that the Portland Thorns organization is complicit in the NWSL’s failures by actively sweeping incidents and complaints under the rug and passing issues off to others without holding offenders accountable. It is also abundantly evident that the PTFC leadership team knew about the incidents when they were reported in 2015. This is inexcusable.
This week’s message from owner Merritt Paulson further demonstrates that the Thorns organization has yet to make concrete changes to address their past failures.
Our hearts and our actions are with Portland’s players — one hundred percent. Our trust, however, is utterly shattered, and it cannot be repaired until significant changes take place across all levels of the PTFC organization.
We call for the immediate and complete removal of Gavin Wilkinson from the PTFC organization, including the youth academies. We also demand the following:
- Implement a transparent and proactive safety, training, and accountability plan that is approved by the players.
- Create an executive-level Diversity Officer position, which will be filled by a candidate with more than 10 years of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) experience and a proven track record of building and implementing an organizational inclusion roadmap.
- Demonstrate transparency that players’ voices will be prominent in the hiring of the next Thorns coach — and any future coaches — as well as information about who will be responsible for background checks and vetting of any new staff.
- Hire separate general managers for the Thorns and the Timbers.
- Create a Club Culture and Player Liaison position for each team whose sole purpose is to mentor and support players from the academy on up. This role should also help transition any new players when they are signed.
- Disclose who has been secured to complete the new investigation of the 2015 events and subsequent investigation.
- Influence the league’s fulfillment of the NWSLPA demands and take local action to satisfy these demands, including immediate suspension of any staff member who violated the current anti-harassment policy or failed to report the alleged violation.
We will purchase nothing in the stadium or online until the PTFC Front Office meets these demands and any additional demands that are shared by the NWSLPA or players individually. We encourage supporters of the team to donate to the NWSLPA any money they would have otherwise spent at a match. The NWSLPA continues to fight for the players to take their power back, and we wish to support them in any way we can.
On game day, we will continue to show up and safely support our teams. Our remote supporters and those not attending games will continue to support from afar. The players deserve our loud and visible support — and to withhold it would send an incorrect message to the players. We want to make it abundantly clear that we are there for the players, but that we remain in protest against the PTFC organization until such time as demands for transparency and change have been met.
We encourage those attending Thorns and Timbers games to wear red in solidarity with the Thorns players and to bring signs that show support for the players and amplify the demand for changes.
We stand ready to change or pivot our actions at any time should there be further requests or information from the NWSLPA or individual players.
The players know their rights and are fighting for their rights. We support them in taking their power back, and we are fully behind them.
#ProtectNWSLPlayers #ProtectOurPlayers #BAONPDX #RCTID
