Banding Together

First off, I want to start this post by apologizing for being a tad delinquent on my blogging responsibilities lately - between work and travel, it's been hard to find time to write something sophisticated and thoughtful enough for my loyal reader base.  I feel especially bad about this in light of all of the positive feedback I've received recently - within the past couple of weeks, many of you have contacted me to say how much you enjoy Caught Looking - many of whom I had no idea had ever read a post.  As always, I very much appreciate your readership, and vow to be better about posting now that things have slowed down a bit.  Keep the suggestions (and praise) coming!

Speaking of work and travel, I finally made my first trip to Portland this week for a workshop.  While I didn't get to go to any sporting events while I was there - the Trail Blazers are obviously in the middle of the off-season and the MLS's Timbers didn't have any home games - I was still impressed by the sports-related atmosphere of Oregon's largest city.  Despite the city's extremely notable hippie vibe, the city showed a strong passion for the local sports teams wherever you looked.  I saw University of Oregon and Oregon State gear everywhere, and everyone from the area is quick to gush about their love for the Blazers.  Even the Timbers have gotten a ton of love - the team has a 6,000 person supporter group that shows up for every home game, and their battle with the Seattle Sounders is quickly emerging as one of the country's most underrated professional sports rivalries.

I think a lot of the surprisingly passionate team sports atmosphere in the Pacific Northwest can be attributed to the fact that the region has been largely neglected by the rest of the sports-loving country.  Portland has just one team in the Big Four leagues despite periodically expressing interest in an MLB franchise.  Seattle has two teams (the Seahawks and the Mariners), but is most often associated with losing the Sonics to Oklahoma City a few years ago.  People forget that Vancouver, too, lost its NBA franchise to Memphis, and now hosts only an NHL team.  The neglect by the pro sports leagues seems to fuel the area's passion for the teams it does have, however; Portland understand how lucky it is to have an NBA franchise after having watched two neighboring cities lose theirs within a decade.  This is particularly surprising in light of the fact that the team has given its fans every reason to jump ship over the past decade (bad player behavior, on-court underachievement, etc.).  Still, the fans continue to pack the Rose Garden virtually every night and season ticket holders continue to renew.

As a result, the Pacific Northwest has also truly embraced a league that the rest of the nation has been slow to adopt - the MLS.  Last year I helped write a Sports Marketing paper on the popularity of Major League Soccer in Portland, Seattle and Vancouver (available upon request), but going to Portland and seeing the love for the green-and-yellow-clad Timbers first-hand helped me understand the positive impact that soccer has had on the area.  Cities like New York, Houston and Chicago take their MLS teams for granted, despite the league's efforts to built beautiful, new, soccer-specific stadiums to improve the fan experience.  In Portland, though, the locals are honored to have teams that are proud to call the Pacific Northwest home.  Throw in the fact that the MLS is now the only league that has teams in Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, and you've got the recipe for a surprisingly strong three-team rivalry.

Portland certainly loves the Timbers.