—by Andrew Brawley

With the recent (and upcoming…again) hoopla over Saturday’s Cascadia Cup match vs. Seattle now subsided for the time being, I’ve noticed a wide array of opinions on how to address and/or respond to the national TV exposure.

Some fans were excited about the Timbers being on NBC. They called their friends and family outside of the Portland market and told them to watch the game so they can finally see first-hand the excitement that is a Timbers match. They might have also been excited to see a proper Major League Soccer match have a shot at growing the sport in the United States, a country where soccer is currently awesome…until youth players enter high school and start playing other sports.

The other group of fans felt the exposure was unnecessary. There’s already too many people clamoring for Timbers tickets, empowering scalpers, and making the temptation for Merritt Paulson to raise prices on tickets and concessions too great. Hardcore fans would prefer to see NBC air a game worthy of a quality team on the pitch, rather than constantly cutting to what’s going on the North End, zooming in on the face-painted juggalo n00b instead of the guy with the hand-screened TA shirt he made in 2002.

All valid arguments.

What seems to be lost in this debate is that having MLS matches air on a national network channel that does not require a paid cable subscription will only help grow the league, as well as the sport in this country.

We here in Portland are spoiled when it comes to our home game experience. Did I say spoiled? Sorry, I meant SPOILED!!! We have a situation that all other teams in the league would go to extreme lengths to have. We have consecutive sellouts despite a team that has been hovering around wooden spoon territory for most of the season. We have multiple capos. We have quality local beers in our concession stands. We now have different local food carts offering their unique dishes at each match. We have a downtown stadium with quality public transit options. We have bike parking…the kind you can actually ride your bike to and from. We have lines of communication between the 107ist Board of Directors and the Timbers front office staff (I’ll let the readers comment on the openness of those lines).

Is it perfect? No! There will always be room for improvement. But when you compare it to other teams in the league, you can see why the powers that be would want a match in Portland to be put on display for a national audience for the first time in four years. Having that match be against Seattle was an obvious option. Having that match serve as a potential clinching of the Cascadia Cup for the Timbers was a nice bonus. Basically, MLS wanted Portland to serve as the model for its introduction to the non-soccer-knowing portion of America, which is much larger than we can comprehend here in Portland.

We seem to forget that Major League Soccer is still not part of the “big 4” of American sports. While the league has been somewhat successful in recent years, it’s still fragile. One wild month of petty cash expense reports out of the MLS corporate office covering a bender weekend of hookers-and-blow could undo the whole thing in the hot flash. Even if the current NHL lockout results in a full season cancellation, there are valid arguments to be made that MLS is still not enough of a "major" league to take their place in the big 4 because it doesn’t have the star power of European leagues.

If the league were to go belly up, this whole thing we’ve got going disappears. POOF! GONE! The quality players go elsewhere, leaving the scraps behind to play in some ramshackle last minute minor league that’s being held together with scotch tape and screen doors. Also, the growth of the sport we love in our own country suffers. (For reference, see Women’s Professional League…a tragedy of tragedies.)

I realize it’s not really “cool” or “hip” or “with it” (as the kids say) to be in the mainstream. Portland is a counter-culture city. Soccer (in America) is a counter-culture sport. That’s two layers of by-default-coolness right there. But anyone going out of their way to discourage the growth of this sport we love throughout the rest of this country…well, they're just being a dick.

Just accept the fact that Timbers matches will be on ESPN, NBC Sports, and even NBC, from time to time. You don’t have to roll out the red carpet for them, or even make a larger-than-life tifo display specifically because they’re going to air it. But on the flip side, you don’t have to flip off the camera, drop an f-bomb, and point at your “F*ck ESPN” two-stick as your form of protest every time you see the red light above the lens. Just focus on supporting the Timbers with your fellow fans. That’s the main reason you started doing this in the first place, right?

 

This is an opinion piece and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the 107ist or the TA.