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?

New season, new ambitious plans by our Art Department—so for a limited time, we’re offering special cloisonné pins as a thank-you gift to Riveters who donate at least $10 to our tifo fund!

We expect to be able to send them out or otherwise distribute them by month’s end. Some of the tifo folks will also have these available to hand out at events in exchange for in-person donations while this promotion lasts. Keep an eye on our newsletter, our Facebook page, and/or our Twitter account for details.

Donations are not tax-deductible.

It’s commonly said that Portland sets the standard for support; certainly, most soccer enthusiasts both in and outside of Portland would agree. Standards must evolve—and achieving and maintaining a pinnacle position means expanding ideas, broadening outreach, and otherwise growing. Those who’ve been to a volunteer recruitment get-together for the Riveters this year know there are already great plans created by those in leadership positions to facilitate growth, with diverse opportunities for involvement and contribution.

Ideally, there will be a strong turnout of skilled, creative, and/or otherwise talented and devoted hands this season.

Some folks will not have the ability or desire to contribute. Reasons will be far-ranging, just as they would be in any other other endeavor that relies on volunteers. Nevertheless, for those who can’t commit to volunteerism, there’s still a small way every individual can easily help to set that standard and continually raise the bar. It’s a challenge each one of us should accept for the upcoming season, and it begins simply with an invitation.

While there were indeed sellout matches in last year’s Thorns season, the average attendance was 15,639. Though that average puts the rest of the league to shame, it does show there still remains an opportunity to introduce the Thorns—and women’s soccer in general—to our friends, family, and business contacts.

For something so simple, there’s oftentimes reticence.

It isn’t uncommon to encounter folks who regularly attend Timbers matches, yet have never seen the Thorns play. Some expect the women’s game to somehow be less exciting, perhaps a less skilled performance, and therefore choose not to give the women’s game a chance. There was an uptick in popularity and interest after the U.S. Women’s Team became our beloved FIFA 2015 Women’s World Cup Champions—an opportunity for a broader segment of the population to see that the women’s game is every bit as exciting as the men’s. But the off season is long, and a refresher may be needed. A modicum of gentle pressure can’t hurt, too.

Recalling Orwell’s words—”To see beyond the tip of one’s nose needs a constant struggle”—calls to mind the need to see beyond the exuberance, attendance, and enthusiasm in the North End, too. There’s a stadium to fill, and often pockets of seats are left unpopulated. This presents a great opportunity to bring in a group—whether officemates, friends, or helping facilitate the “best field trip ever”. Group tickets purchased from the Front Office are often comparable to, if not more affordable than, minor league baseball, Pac-12 (collegiate) basketball, and major junior ice hockey. The benefit of PTFC over any of those is experiencing not the up-and-coming, or maybe-someday stars, but women at the absolute pinnacle of their careers. Pro sports in every sense of the phrase.

Portland Thorns support is a big tent, as well. There’s room for every type of supporter and personality. Don’t know two-stick from chopstick? That’s fine. Thought tifo was an acronym? No big deal. Can’t breathe around goal smoke, or prefer to remain seated? There’s plenty of space outside the North End. Single? You get your pick of seats. Have a family in tow? Admission is cheap. But most importantly: there’s a place for everybody; all are welcome. (Or, to quote former goalkeeper and now goalkeeper-coach Nadine Angerer, “Except Nazis. I don’t like them”.)

With a dynamic new coach in Mark Parsons, and new recruits like Icelandic National Team/FSU standout Dagny Brynjarsdottir, USWNT veteran Meghan Klingenberg, and Paris Saint-Germain star Lindsey Horan coming on board as well, PTFC’s 2016 prospects look brighter than ever. Coupled with beloved returning stars like Tobin Heath, Christine Sinclair, and Allie Long, we stand at the precipice of what may very well be the Thorns’ most exciting season to date.

Growing the game is an effort we can all participate in—and it’s fun, too. Every single supporter/fan can and should commit to bring at least one first-timer to a Thorns match this year—whether they’re North End, South Deck, Value Terrace or “prawn sandwich” territory. It’s a great way to support the club, and one can be confident that their first match likely won’t be their last.

You’d better buy some extra scarves.

On Sunday, February 21st, the Riveters will be hosting the second winter meet-up & volunteer recruitment event. This will be at Blitz 99 located at 10935 SW 68th Pkwy in Tigard from 11am – 1pm. We chose to do it early in the day, on a Sunday, to make it easier for folks who couldn’t get to the Thursday night meet-up earlier in the month. Also, the Timbers have a preseason match that evening, so hopefully there is limited conflict.

Come out to this meet-up if you want to connect with like minded fans and also if you’re interested in getting more involved in 2016. We are looking for a lot of new faces to join our efforts and will have committee members on hand to share info about what we do and answer any questions you may have.

If you cannot make it out to either of the meet-ups but still want to get involved, please add your information to one of the sign up forms below. You can sign up for as many committees as you would like. We will be in touch shortly after you sign up to let you know when the next meeting will be or ask about how you would like to get involved.

• Riveters Design Team
• Riveters Communications
• Riveters Sales/Membership Team
• Riveters Travel
• Riveters Capos/Drums/Trumpets

On Thursday, February 11, we’re holding the first of at least two preseason Rose City Riveters meetups and info sessions for prospective volunteers. This one will be at Bazi Bierbrasserie on SE 32nd and Hawthorne from 6:30-8:30pm. If you’re interested in chatting directly with subcommittee leads about the positions where we need help, come on down! In either case, come down to catch up with fellow supporters and meet new people.

We have signup forms online for open volunteer slots. Whether or not you can make it to one of the in-person events, we encourage you to fill out the online form for any position in which you’re interested:

• Riveters Design Team
• Riveters Communications
• Riveters Sales/Membership Team
• Riveters Travel
• Riveters Capos/Drums/Trumpets

Hope to see you there!

Thanks to those of you who were able to attend today’s 107ist Annual General Meeting. To cut to the chase, though: we need you! Here are the Riveters volunteer signup forms for this year:

• Riveters Design Team
• Riveters Communications
• Riveters Sales/Membership Team
• Riveters Travel
• Riveters Capos/Drums/Trumpets

As always, if you’re interested in painting tifo, the call will go out for help with individual displays when the time comes.

Feel free to email us with any questions you might have. Our committee leads expect to get back to all applicants within the coming weeks. 

Greetings and welcome to an unprecedented Year 4 from your 2016 Communications Critter and 107ist Board Liaison!

Along with the ascension of MarPar to the throne, the team looks to have been gifted with a MASSIVE infusion of fresh talent and energy this off-season. We’ve got at least a preseason schedule now, and we can’t wait to be doing more than following along with the domestic and overseas adventures of our Girls in Red, wildly speculating over Twitter, and thinking up fun banner ideas as we sort paint out in the garage.

Watch this space, Facebook, and Twitter for updates in the very near future. In the meantime, a couple of things I’d love from you:

• If you’re interested in receiving emails from us from time to time, sign up using the form on the right side of this page. We’ll send info on Riveters-centric events, volunteer opportunities, and other things you might want to know about as the year progresses.
• Send me an email with feedback about what you’d like to do as a Riveter and what you’d like to see the Riveters do this year. What’s working for you? What’s missing? What are you interested in but not sure how to do? How can you help, and how can we? If it’s not in my wheelhouse (which at this point chiefly consists of our social media presence and the website), I’ll make sure your feedback/question/suggestion gets to the folks in charge of your area of interest: info@rosecityriveters.org

Let’s make this the best year yet!

-Lexi

Consider this your formal invitation to come to Portland for the NWSL Championship final.

Portland is a pretty simple city for travelers. If you’re flying in just for a few days for the game, you don’t even need to rent a car. Providence Park (1844 SW Morrison) is conveniently located just a few blocks from the center of the city and is easily accessible by public transportation. Both the MAX light rail red and blue lines stop literally across the street and many bus lines have stops within a couple hundred yards of the gates. You can find a public transportation trip planner at Trimet.org. Trimet also offers a pretty handy app that lets you purchase your fare using a smart phone. A full day pass is $5 and will get you anywhere you need to go.

If you’re planning on driving to the stadium on game day, please note: there’s no parking lot. Parking is at a premium in the area with very few pay lots close by. Leave your car at the hotel/Air BnB or whatever and hop on a bus or train, or look for a Smart Park Garage in downtown. If you park after 5 p.m., it, too, is only $5 and several SP garages are close to the light rail lines.

There are lots of good hotels in the downtown core area, though they cater primarily to business travelers and aren’t cheap.

The Park Lane Suites and Hotel Deluxe are within lazy-people-walking-distance from ProPark, the big beige square on the left. This screen capture shows rates pulled from Google as of 9/13/15. They will likely change a dozen times over the next couple weeks. When searching for a hotel, you might also consider the Lloyd Center/Convention Center area. Most have on-site parking and are close to MAX light rail stops. Airport hotels may have lower rates as well, but be aware that rush hour traffic will be between you and the stadium on game day. Forgo the rental car and put that money into the higher-priced downtown hotel.

However, if you’re in town for the weekend, maybe pick up a car to get out of town and see some of the great Pacific Northwest. Mt. Hood and historic Timberline Lodge are roughly an hour’s drive to the east; Seaside, Canon Beach, and Astoria (where The Goonies was filmed*) are a bit more than an hour west.

Or, just stay in town. Portland is home to a significant food cart culture, dozens of breweries, tons of museums and galleries, and a bazillion things to do. Some things to check out:

Portland is home to what might be the only bar in the world dedicated to women’s soccer.

Take a tour of the downtown area and get to know the area with Portland Walking Tours.

We’ve got art!

You like werewolves? We’ve got those, too.

And, in case we hadn’t mentioned it before, we’re the City of Roses.

But you’re here for the soccer, aren’t you? Stick around and check out the University of Portland women’s team October 3 at Merlo Field. For many of us, women’s soccer begins with memories of the legendary Clive Charles. His legacy cannot be discounted.

Okay, so there’s your starting point for your NWSL Championship trip to Portland. We’ll update as we get closer and are looking forward to meeting all of you. Look for a Game Day Info post as we get closer to October 1st.

*When talking about travel to Oregon, it’s required that we mention where The Goonies was filmed.

I’ve been watching from a safe distance for months as the tifo crew went through the planning and testing and adjusting process for the end-of-season display. They are an intrepid group, a group that works harder than most will ever know.

Any late interest in Plan F: Rent a big disco ball and have it light up the rafters?

Ideas were proposed, discussed, changed, scrapped, reborn. There was an elaborate contraption made of pvc and connectors, a weather balloon, strings of LED lights that went unused.

Learned an unhappy lesson this afternoon – trim your fingernails before inflating a weather balloon.

Trial and error, opportunities for learning and laughing and growing and groaning. Brilliant 2 a.m. ideas faded in the light of morning and were replaced by even more brilliant ideas. People floated in and out of the discussion and then, at long last, fabric was laid out and paint brushes taken up and a beautiful thing happened.

Simple and elegant, it said so many things. By the time it was raised, the Thorns were already outside of the playoff picture but, despite a disappointing season, we still saw them as the Belles of the Ball.

They are the reason we do what we do. They are why we show up en masse. They are the catalyst for the magic that happens in the sometimes indecipherable minds of the tifo crew.

Is helium actually a need?

I look at the work that’s created by this group of folks and I know just how lucky we are to have them. Working with materials that have been salvaged from previous displays and often donating materials they’ve gathered, they create short-lived works of art for the express purpose of delivering a message to the players on the field and, perhaps to a greater extent, the world.

We support you, our beloved Thorns. We know this season did not go according to plan, but we’re still here. Let’s dance.

Okay. This is it. Last home match of the season.

The season hasn’t gone the way we’d have planned it, but here we are anyway. We’ve got one more chance to show our Thorns that we support them regardless of the result.

It’s a big day. Be on time. Don’t traipse in five minutes to kick-off. Bring your A-game. Also, maybe bring some rain gear.

We’ve got two Thorns retiring at the end of this season: Rachel Van Hollebeke and Nadine Angerer. We know the team plans to honor both pre-match, but why not don a jaunty hat for Nadine and maybe some scrubs for Rachel, who’s off to medical school any minute now? They’ve both been stalwart for both the Thorns and for their national teams and they will be greatly missed in the soccering world.

BUY YOUR CAPO A PINT. Actually, don’t. But do kick in a few bucks (those few bucks you would have spent on that pint) to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls. We’ll be passing buckets around for cash donations, but you can also go here and donate online. Summer session tuition this year was $400 per camper. We’d love to be able to sponsor one camper for each of our capos and drum corps members next summer.

RIVETERS PLAYER OF THE YEAR. We’ve got the trophy and we’ll be presenting it to our winner at the close of the match. We know you guys stick around anyway, but encourage your neighbors to do the same. All our players deserve recognition, but the winner has gone above and beyond this year.

As always, we’ll be at Fanladen pre-match with t-shirts, scarves and assorted whatnot, as well as 107ist membership services and ticket exchange. If you’ve got a spare ticket you won’t be using, you can donate it to the tifo fund by transferring it to ticketdonation@rosecityriveters.org. We’ve got a pretty fantastic tifo crew and we want to make sure their efforts are well-funded as we look toward the planning of the 2016 season.