It’s been over two weeks since the Thorns have graced the pitch at Providence Park and it will be two more until we see them there again. So, if you, like me, suffer from TSA (Thorns Separation Anxiety), you’ll be happy to know that the last game of this away trip is in that little fishing village up north. Since we already know that you want to go (even if you don’t think you do, trust me, you want to go) here’s some tips to make the best of the experience.

Get On The Bus:

It’s a decently long drive to Memorial Stadium. There will be traffic in Olympia and Tacoma, not to mention having to battle downtown traffic in Seattle itself. Spare yourself all this hassle by getting on one of the Riveters’ buses. All you have to do is show up at the meeting place and get on! We’ve even supplied a couple kegs (one of beer and one of cider) for your ride north. How else are you going to (legally and safely) show up to Memorial pre-gamed with a drink or two (or three) and ready to go for the match?

The Ride North:

Once you’re on the bus, there are a few tips to be learned from those who have done this before. First of all, make sure you check that the bathroom on the bus is functional before you start drinking. You don’t want to be two beers in before you realize that you actually have to wait until Centralia to use a restroom. Second, introduce yourself to those around you that you don’t know. The bus is a great place to get to know your fellow Riveters and make new friends. The bus is also a great place to write new chants. Let’s enter the stadium singing a brand new song to cheer on our Thorns. Lastly, it’s a tradition for first timers to bring a baked good for the author of travel blogs.

Memorial Stadium:

When it comes to food and beverage, expect the standard stadium fare. You won’t find the great choices that we have at Providence Park: no giant sandwiches, bacon-wrapped hot dogs, or rotating food carts. Many travelers choose to bring food and eat on the bus before the game. Be warned that there is limited alcohol in Memorial Stadium. The stadium itself has a no adult beverage policy, but the Reign have gotten permission to have a beer garden. If you consider adult beverages a key part of your game day experience, they will have to be consumed away from our section or before or after the match. This is where the kegs that we have on the buses come in handy. Also, if you anticipate needing to use the restroom at the stadium, I suggest you go early and wear closed-toed shoes. I personally have only used them once before a game, but stories have been shared of less than stellar conditions in the Memorial Stadium restrooms.

Hostile Territory:

In case you don’t already realize, we’ll be entering a stadium full of thousands of people rooting for the other team. We’re not going to be their favorite people. Some will let us know this. Some of them will do so loudly. It’s our job as visiting fans to let these incidents slide. You’re going to have to get used to people yelling things at you that you might not like. To prepare, I suggest you call that uncle with opposite political views from yours and asking them why they’ve chosen their preferred presidential candidate. If you, like me, don’t have their phone number, you can actually read the articles they post to Facebook. In addition, since we are guests in another team’s stadium, we should keep the language respectable. There’s no need to give one of Seattle’s supporters groups more reasons to flash that “Keep It Classy, Portland” sign at us.

Let’s Pretend We’ll Score A Goal:

The Thorns haven’t had the best of luck at Memorial. Over the past two years, we’ve been beaten there by a combined score of 8-0. While I’m always one to look on the bright side and hope for the best, there are also times when one needs to prepare for the worst. Personally, I’m going to be happy if we manage to score a goal. If we don’t, I’m hoping you’ll all join me in this chant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PpJBR_rQJk

In all seriousness, while I’m hoping for Seattle’s second loss at Memorial, there’s more to this trip than who comes away with three points. It’s about being with fellow supporters, having a great time, and cheering on our girls in red.

This season, we’re going to try something new. For each match, we’re going to be collecting different items to donate to area organizations that help those in need. Our focus is on those seeking shelter from abusive relationships or have fallen on hard times who need a warm place to stay and basic supplies.

The first organization to partner with the Rose City Riveters in this effort is Rose Haven.

Rose Haven serves women and children experiencing the trauma of abuse, loss of home and other disruptive life challenges. Rose Haven’s mission is to maintain a safe, respectful community while providing our guests with support and services to assist them in regaining stability in their lives. – http://rosehaven.org/about-us/mission-history/

For the first event, we are asking our community to help us collect oral care products such as toothbrushes, toothpaste and floss. These are items that Rose Haven is in dire need of, as they serve 30 individuals a day on average and provide these basic items to each person who calls on them for help.

If you are able, please bring new toothbrushes, unopened toothpaste, and sealed packages of floss to the Fanladen (1633 SW Alder St) on Sunday, April 17th from 5:00 to 6:30pm. The match starts at 7pm, so hopefully everyone can drop off their items and get to their seats with plenty of time!

We will be partnering with other community organizations for future drives. As we get those events confirmed, keep an eye out for a schedule for all matches! 

The Rose City Riveters have stood up for equality and different social issues a number of times over our short 3-year history. Now we have an opportunity to stand up again.

We stand behind the United States Women’s National Team as they strive for equal pay for equal play as compared to their male counterparts in the United States Soccer Federation organization. Their fight is on the front page of most news websites today. It is a fight that has been going on for decades, most notably in the last 3 years as the USWNT was not able to establish a new Collective Bargaining Agreement with USSF after their epic World Cup performance in 2011.

For the first time in history, in FY2016, the USWNT is on pace to out-earn the USMNT. This is huge for a number of reasons, the primary one being that the counterargument for their pay structure has always been “look at who brings home the bacon” (pun not intended).

The second part of this issue has a lot to do with sponsorship and winnings, because when a team wins a tournament, those winnings tend to go to the Federation, who then pay out their own predetermined bonuses. USSF bonuses are structured differently for the MNT and WNT simply because a) the size of the winnings differ, and b) the WNT players are salaried while the men are only being paid for their participation with the team. The simple way to look at this is that there is the potential for the Federation to generate more revenue from earnings from men’s tournaments because the prize money is greater. But that is a shallow way of looking at this. Why is the prize money greater? It is because there are, generally, more sponsors and TV deals and coverage for these tournaments.

Sponsorship is a bit more convoluted, because most sponsors are Federation sponsors. For example, USSF pocketed $26M in FY2015 from a Nike sponsorship. The Federation does not report out what it does with that sponsorship money, though it did note that in FY2015, Nike gave them an additional $250K as a men’s World Cup bonus. My question here is: Why do sponsors sign on? Is it to market a particular squad? Should USSF have a responsibility to distribute the resources as the sponsor intends? So, I’ll be interested to see if there is a specific line item bonus in the FY2016 report.

But I digress. When we take the sponsorship and winnings piece out of the equation, and look at the earnings for the two senior teams, 2016 is an epic year for the women. They now have the data that stands by their growing popularity and their growing support, and the consumer has voted with their pocketbook. This, to me, is huge.

We stand behind women not being satisfied with the status quo, especially when the playing field is not even. We stand behind these women as they make a historic move toward equality in all aspects of their job.

But we do not just stand behind the USWNT.

We stand behind the NWSL with the promise that the growth of the league will lead to better wages for all players, not just the big names in the league, The Federation players. We stand up for those unpaid amateurs who show up day in and day out for practice and meetings, hoping for a chance to make an impact and earn a contract.

For too long, female athletes have had to pursue their dreams as more of a hobby. They are unable to earn a living wage for themselves or their families, because no one watches their sport. Because no one is sponsoring their sport. Because they do not have a big money-making machine enabling them to train and condition full-time for their sport.

We have shown up, for three years now, to prove the contrary. We are watching your sport. We are buying the sponsors’ products. We want to help develop that machine that will hopefully enable future NWSL players to be able to train and condition full-time for their team. We stand behind the players.

With the inception of the NWSL and then Merritt Paulson bringing a team to Portland, we have all become very aware of the issues surrounding women and sports. Not that we weren’t aware of them before, but now we want to pass a hat for them, we want to gift them grocery store gift cards, we want to help them every day. We help support them through GoFundMe campaigns. We network to try to find them reasonably priced, reliable vehicles. We realize this is grass roots, and we know that this is going to grow into something that is so much more.

I want to support a league that is able to generate revenue and also pay its players a living wage. I want a league that plays entirely in soccer-specific stadiums. I want a league that has a TV deal and national sponsors. I want a league that is attracting world-class players as much as they are developing players in the local communities. I know that our current league status is in place to create a sustainable format for growth, but I do not want this league to consider its current status a success. I want the ownership group, the coaches, the general managers, and the players to continue to strive for improvements. I want every player who steps on the pitch in a Thorns kit to be earning above the poverty line.

I stand by these players because I see all of these things as viable. I stand with the Rose City Riveters because I know that we will not accept the status quo to remain constant. We are always striving for better, and we want to support the players as they do the same, both on the pitch and off.

I stand by the USWNT because I am the consumer and I know that my dollar is equal to yours. I know that today’s action is just the first wave in a tsunami of change for these athletes, and will have a significant impact on the way our Thorns are compensated and developed in the future. Hopefully, in the very near future.

Link to buy tickets/seats on the bus! http://www.eventbrite.com/e/rose-city-riveters-space-needle-away-1-tickets-24212359820

We are mere hours away from seeing our club in action for the first time this year! Your Riveters Travel Team has been hard at work sorting out logistics for our away dates, and are excited to announce that we will again be sending two buses up to Memorial Stadium in Seattle on May 14! After our season opener, the Thorns have four consecutive matches on the road. Away at Seattle will be last of the four, and is our first opportunity to send a big block of supporters up north this year. It is important to reserve these early, as we have limited space on the bus and limited tickets in our current allocation. It also helps us with knowing names and numbers as early as possible.

The Riveters have purchased 100 Lower Grand tickets (we should be right next to the pitch, which means no more hiking up to the top of Memorial Stadium) for the match from the Reign. Normally, these tickets are $25 each, but with the group discount, it is $15 each. Here are the details for our group ticket order opportunities:

Ticket only – $15 plus Eventbrite Fees – LOWER GRANDSTAND. You will need to pick up your ticket in Seattle when the bus gets there or the tickets will be at will call.

Bus only – $29 plus Eventbrite Fees – you either have your own ticket or will be acquiring your own ticket. The Riveters will be in the LOWER GRANDSTAND, and those tickets are normally $25 per ticket.

Ticket & Bus combo – $44 plus Eventbrite Fee

We will work with our partner breweries to get some sponsored kegs on board, but as of right now we do not know what we will be able to offer. We will aim for 1 cider bus and 1 beer bus. You will pick your bus while we wait to load them on travel day, so don’t worry about there not being an option here.

All participants in our group agree to the 107ist Away Travel Code of Conduct for Riveters Away Travel.

Rules for the buses:

NO GLASS ALLOWED ON THE BUS. While we are allowed to bring food and drink (adult beverages are way okay), you are not allowed to have glass containers. Please plan accordingly.

NO #2 ON THE BUS! The bathroom on the bus has a very small storage tank! We will be stopping at a rest stop about 1/2 way through the drive. Or, about 90 minutes in.

There are no age restrictions in the Riveters or on our buses. If you’re a party of 1, coming with friends, or want to make it a trip for the whole family, please join us!

Memorial Stadium allows flags, banners and 2-sticks. Please leave all noisemakers at home, though. Those will not be allowed into Memorial Stadium.

Bring food and drink. Keep glass at home. Clean up after yourself. Keep an eye on each other. We all want to have fun.

Schedule for Saturday, May 14th

1pm – Bus departs from the Oregon Convention Center (NE Holladay St between NE 2nd and MLK)

5pm – Bus arrives at Memorial Stadium under the Space Needle. The Riveters will be escorted into the stadium (and out, after the match).

7pm – Kickoff of match.

1am – Bus arrives back at Oregon Convention Center to drop road warriors off.

If you have any questions or concerns, we would be happy to address them in the comments under this post. Come join us in Seattle!

Join us!

http://www.eventbrite.com/e/rose-city-riveters-space-needle-away-1-tickets-24212359820

UPDATE!!! We have received donations from Lompoc Brewing and 2 Towns Cider for the buses. We are still finalizing exactly what pours will be made on the bus (depends on availability, so requests don’t really fly). Please be sure to thank them if you will be frequenting their establishments!! Also, thank Hilda at Bazi this weekend because she was a huge part of making this happen!! 

We all know what friendlies are—or at least, what they’re supposed to be, in theory. A match not so intensely competitive; one that played for little more than its own sake. (MLS pre-season matches we’ve seen this year might make such a definition questionable at best.)

If there’s one friendly the Thorns play in the pre-season that we can hope will remain neighborly, let’s hope it is the match played with our collegiate neighbors to the south.

Oregon State University Beavers will play Portland Thorns on March 30th. OSU already has a meaningful connection to the Portland Thorns—2015 forward Jodie Taylor was an Oregon State standout 2004-2008. Also, those who look today may see a distinctly Portlandesque imprint on portions of the Corvallis squad.

Goalkeeper Lizzy Coryell played several years for the Westside Timbers, winning a state championship in 2013. Forward Maddie Misi also played several years with Westside Timbers in varying positions, and had two years on the Westside Timbers WPSL team. Former Jesuit goalkeeper Lindsay Lamont helped Crossfire Oregon to state championships in 2012 and 2013. Midfielder Annie Govig played with FC Portland in addition to captaining Sherwood High School’s team.

Slated to join the team this Fall, incoming freshman forward Jada Krening was the 2015 Oregon Live Girls Soccer Player of the Year. She spent the last two seasons with the Portland Thorns Academy, and was the first Parkrose student to accept a Pac-12 scholarship. As Team Captain, Krening set the Parkrose High School record with 81 goals in her four seasons (while maintaining a 4.0—not too shabby!). Another new recruit, midfielder Diana Santiago, played for FC Portland as well as the Westside Metros.

There are other connections to Portland with the Oregon State squad. For the many who closely follow University of Portland soccer, Beavs Assistant Coach Michelle Voiland was starting goalkeeper and was a four-time All-Conference First Team selection at UP in the early to mid-nineties. She went on to play, and later coach, for FC Saarbruecken in the Bundesliga.

While the local connections are endearing, the talent on the OSU squad certainly isn’t limited to Oregonians. Defender Greta Espinoza is just returning from her most recent effort as part of the Mexican National Team, with whom she has 13 caps. Helene Haavik, a forward from Norway, Played for the U16, U17, and U19 Norwegian National Team and went to the European Championships all three years.

Certainly, we will be there to cheer for our Thorns as our priority. But if your schedule and collegiate allegiances allow, you may want to take time to cheer for those Beavs as well.

Sunday, March 27 – Houston Dash vs. Oregon State at 2:30 p.m.

Saturday, April 2 – Seattle Reign FC vs. Oregon State at 2:30 p.m.

Hi there, Thorns supporters and podcast enthusiasts! My name is Patrick Chizeck, and I am a co-host on a brand new podcast called Riveting! Despite the name, we aren’t an official program of the Riveters—I asked for permission from the powers that be to use the name and they very cordially allowed it.

I am joined every week(ish) by my co-hosts Eric Ohlsen and Emilie Rossi to discuss, bicker and ultimately make mostly unsuccessful jokes about the Thorns and the state of women’s soccer in the US and abroad, although we will be mostly concentrating on what happens with our women in red and black.

Every week we will be soliciting questions from you, the audience, to either answer or at least begin a discussion about (as some questions have no answers—for instance, why does Merritt keep deleting his tweets when he knows we Tweetbunker them?). This podcast doesn’t just belong to Emilie, Eric and me, it belongs to all of us, which is why we want as much participation from y’all as you’re willing to give.

Right now you can check us out in a bunch of places:

Website

Facebook

Twitter

If you somehow forget all of these things as well as this post, you should probably stop hitting yourself on the head, but we’re also linked on the sidebar on the Thorns subreddit, which you should be subscribed to anyway.

Our first episode is already up! (We’re on iTunes now! Just look for us!) but you can either find us on Stitcher or just add us manually to your favorite podcast manager by using our RSS feed:

http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:212977054/sounds.rss

Wow, that’s a lot of links.

I guess if you’re super lazy, here’s the first episode right here.

https://soundcloud.com/chizeck/episode-1-new-players-new-coach-same-old-payscale

Thanks for your time, and we hope to hear from you soon (or that you hear us. Either way!).

Patrick is a founding member of the SG from the very first meeting and a Game Day Ops stalwart since forever. You should listen to him.

Today was another big day for a lot of NWSL teams as single game tickets went on sale for a lot of different clubs. With that, we want to let everyone know that we have assembled a Travel Committee to help with the 2016 Riveters Away Day Travel. This group is working with the different ticket sales reps to better understand if we can get a group discount for Riveters and if we can get Away Supporter sections at the different stadiums.

If you are planning on or interested in hitting the road this year to support the Thorns, please bookmark the 2016 Away Stadium Ticket Info to stay in the know about stadium policies (drums, banners, flags, smoke) and group tickets. We really want to take advantage of group discounts for tickets as much as we can, so each away event has a Facebook page set up (also available on the 2016 info page under each match) so we can get a sense of the demand for each game. Most group discounts kick in at or around 8 tickets, so if you’re planning to go, help out your fellow traveler and let us know so we can get things put together.

Also, the Facebook pages will help with coordination and carpooling to the games. After all, we’re a small group of road warriors.

FOR SEATTLE AWAY — Hold on to your horses. We are working with their ticketing rep to get a different section at Memorial set aside for us as well as buses (2!) lined up for the trips. More information about the 2 matches up north will be available shortly. 

Please donate $8 or more, if you are able, in order to help Tiffany Weimer, her fellow players, and host family recover from a devastating fire. https://www.gofundme.com/nwslfirefund

Ocho. Tiffany Weimer may have worn #19 on the pitch for the 2013 NWSL Championship winning Thorns FC team, but supporters who followed her career closely knew that Tiffany’s nickname was Ocho, and that she has a specific affinity for Batman. Tiffany scored the monumental tying goal in the sweltering heat of the semifinal game at Kansas City and she was an enormous reason why there is a star above the Thorns crest and a banner hanging in our stadium.

Tiffany also wrote eloquently during the end of our inaugural season about the Superheroes tifo and what it was like to feel the kind of support we are known for in Portland. Tiffany’s post is a great reminder why we do what we do, and you should read it all. This section is especially pertinent today:

Imagine doing what you love for a living. Then imagine 15,000 people cheering you on every time you land a plane or publish a book. Or whatever it is you love doing.

Then imagine your competitor trying to bring you down. And those same 15,000 people standing behind you saying “no, honey, you need to take a step back, this is our house.” And that happening every single day. And even if you make a mistake on the job, like the best friend that will always tell you “you were too good for Zac Efron anyway”, they will show you unconditional love like you’ve never experienced.

When someone has your back, you truly feel like you can do anything. Your superhero superpower is invincibility. You’re untouchable. Being on a field competing in an arena like professional sports, there’s nothing more powerful.

Earlier this afternoon, we learned that Tiffany Weimer and her fellow professional soccer players Tori Huster and Britt Eckerstrom, alongside Britt’s parents, Pam and Kurt, have lost almost everything they own to a fire. Thankfully, nobody was injured.

One of the images from the aftermath of the fire that has most struck with me is Tiffany’s journal, covered in ash, on top of a book with a sticker of her trademark Batman silhouette.

The signal has been sent for our community to rally and support our superhero once more. Instead of 15,000 people cheering Tiffany on the pitch, we need to stand behind her and those impacted by this horrible event. While it may not be during the course of a game, we know that community during all facets of life is important, especially through trials such as these. We have your back, Tiffany. Once a Thorn, always a Thorn.

Please consider donating $8 or more in order to help Tiffany Weimer, her fellow players, and host family recover from a devastating fire. https://www.gofundme.com/nwslfirefund

I had a miserable time yesterday. MISERABLE! I sat at home and watched our Portland boys give it a go with that cranky team from the Midwest. I hacked, I wheezed, I may have gotten a little misty when ESPN ran some clips from the moments following what was a historic moment for the Timbers. An MLS cup. Ours. A star. Ours.

I was all set up in my chair with some tissues to my right and a glass of water to my left, cold medicine within easy reach, and animals settled in on my lap and in the chair next to me, content to snooze until I cursed at the screen in frustration or screamed in celebration.

There was the inevitable build-up to the unveiling of the banner. Talk of how long it had been. 1975. That’s a loooong time. Being in the North End for most matches for the past 5 years made me feel small. When you’re looking down the barrel of 1975, when I was 2…yeah, go ahead and do the math if you must…5 years looks small. And you know, there hasn’t been a championship in the Rose City since those ’77 Blazers. Whoa. That’s a loooong time, too, rig…wait.

There’s a little red sign.

It’s actually not so little. Actually, it’s quite large. Must have been as big of a pain in the ass to hang as that nifty Timbers banner that was unveiled yesterday. Perhaps you’ve glanced up now and then to look at it while searching the for the signs of great retired Timbers players and, of course, of our beloved Timber Jim.

It says NWSL Champions…2013.

Huh. Maybe we should talk about this. There must have been a mistake somewhere, because the announcers said that there hasn’t been a championship in Portland since ’77. Caleb Porter himself, of the laser blue eyes and confident smirk, said that there hasn’t been a championship in Portland since the Blazers won in ’77. It’s almost like the Thorns accomplishment is…invisible.

I’m a reasonable person. I understand that sports have been a bastion of testosterone for…well…ever. This is one piece, though, that I’m willing to have a say about. The USWNT won the World Cup last summer. Let that sink in for a second. They won. The. World. Cup. They didn’t just win it, either…they DEMOLISHED Japan in the final. It was impressive. It was inspiring. It was…historic. We have, at this point, 4 USWNT players who will be on the pitch for the Thorns this season. We also have national team players from Canada, Denmark, England, and Iceland. I know, I know, “club over country.” Ok. Well, I don’t really have a stance on that, to be honest. But if you’re going to complain about it, then shut your mouth about Nagbe being called up to the USMNT, and we’ll call it good.

Back to that pesky little red sign, though.

It’s there. I checked. And every time it’s not acknowledged in our proud “Soccer City USA” heritage, it’s a silent permission slip to pay some of our best female players $6,000 a season…or bring in unpaid players to round out the roster during the Olympics or the World Cup…to not make kits that can be worn by men…to write angry emails about swearing and finger-flipping at Thorns matches when the same damn things are done each week from the main stage and capo nests for the Timbers. The more times we let it go by and say nothing, the more we are saying it’s quite alright that a derby match between Seattle and Portland be bumped for “Behind the Scenes at NASCAR.”

I will be the first to say that that first Thorns season was full of just plain weirdness. There were stories about CPC and her lack of plan or control, how the players had taken things into their own hands, Morgan’s attitude, Heath’s apathy, etc. Doesn’t matter. The little red sign persists. As a matter of fact, let’s relive a goal that pertains to that sign:

Yeah. Not so much with the apathy there.

I think that it’s time that Soccer City USA prove its mettle and make a goddamn ruckus when ANYone forgets that before the Timbers put a star on it after 40 years, the Thorns did it…in one.

I realized something last night, watching Mark Parsons talk about the Thorns and their fans. See, I’ve been trying to put my finger on it for a while now, why I like supporting the Thorns so much. There’s a lot there. First, I like soccer. All soccer. Any soccer. And the Thorns play some excellent soccer.

Then there’s an added benefit with the Thorns. With most sports, I can acknowledge to myself that I’m being sort of ridiculous – that in the grand scheme of things that matter in this world, whether or not my Red Sox win shouldn’t really rate on that list. Of course, it does. I have very clear memories of absolute heartbreak, and much foggier memories of raucous celebrations and the hangovers that follow. But I know very well I’m just watching grown men play a game. There’s no larger social movement behind it. Supporting women’s sports, on the other hand, is also about equality. Title IX did a lot of good. It increased female participation in sports by 990% in high school, and by 560% in college. But the job’s not done yet, and opportunities to play professionally are still lacking. Even today, even with our beloved Thorns, the minimum salary is less than $7,000. Last year, during the World Cup, there were women playing for professional soccer teams without any pay at all. There are still miles to go in the fight for gender equality, and supporting women’s sports is one way to aid in that battle.

But mostly, when you go to a Thorns game, you aren’t thinking about that. You’re just thinking about the soccer and the atmosphere and the fun. And that isn’t just down to the soccer being played. It’s also the fans. We have excellent fans. We have a supporters section that sings the entire time, not to mention tifo displays to rival men’s sides. We have – quite literally – the best fans in the world. That’s a point of pride for me, and I suspect for a lot of people. But it’s also useful. Thorns fans have more direct influence on their team than any group I’ve ever seen. It’s not just the immediate impact on a game that you might have (or hope to have) anytime you’re in the stands. Honestly, with the Thorns, I think sometimes that backfires. Players from other teams come in ready to play. They want to play in front of a serious, loud, knowledgeable fan base, even if they are, as Meghan Klingenberg described us, “hostile” (which I took as a ringing endorsement). I’ve heard players say that coming to Providence Park was the first time they felt like a professional athlete.

That’s what I realized last night, when Mark Parsons was talking about an as yet unnamed player they were hoping to sign. He said she was very excited about the idea of playing for the Thorns, that he didn’t think she would be coming here if it weren’t for us. He talked about this being a nice place to live, both Portland as a city and Oregon as a state. But mostly he talked about the fans.

When you follow sports, you see a lot of people go somewhere for the money or for the chance of winning a championship. Occasionally you see someone stay where they started out, and you applaud their loyalty. But coming to the NWSL from Europe means leaving home for less money. In Portland, it also means playing in front of the best fans in the world. It means those fans won’t just know the national team stars, but everyone, right down to the bench players. It means they take you seriously as a professional athlete, game in and game out. That’s one hell of a selling point. And that’s the impact that we, as fans, have on this team. How cool is that?