Last year old a rain soaked night we welcomed MLS to Portland and ushered in a new era with the "It Takes an Army to Raise a Club" tifo everyone remembers so well. That very same night the Timbers Army sang the Star Spangled Banner rather than having a performer sing the National Anthem. As a board we thought it was a fantastic idea and supported it wholeheartedly. It turns out singing the national anthem as a group was one of the more memorable events in an evening sopping with memorable events.

This year the club asked the board if we wanted to repeat the performance. We respectfully declined the offer for a few reasons, which at the time made a lot of sense to us. The main reason being we didn’t want to try and recreate such a singular and memorable event. In other words we were thinking that the cover is never as good as the original.

We received a lot of feedback about that decision. Some of it in support but much of it expressed a lot of disappointment that we weren’t going to sing the National Anthem at the home opener again. We have heard your feedback loudly and clearly. We’re happy to announce than upon reconsideration we’ve decided that we will sing the National Anthem again at the home opener because the Timbers Army wants it. We decided to be the sole ones responsible for singing it, as we already sing it every game with the talent on the field. Let’s make this year louder and even better. You have a little over a week to get your voice ready to welcome in the 2012 campaign.