The I-5 Thoughts: On the Timbers' search for a star, MKA vs. Gill, the start of baseball season and the surging Winterhawks
It's not just basketball that's beginning to heat up around the state.
The I-5 Thoughts is a weekly piece on The I-5 Corridor that touches on a variety of sports from Portland to Eugene.
BEAVERTON — The Portland Timbers are sure putting a lot of faith into Player TBD.
The vibes out at the practice facility in Beaverton are good, mind you. Portland has returned home from its final tune-up stint in Coachella and is just days away from opening up the regular season against Colorado Saturday at Providence Park.
The team has a new manager in Phil Neville, it’s seeking a return to the MLS Playoffs for the first time in two seasons and everyone around the club is feeling pretty good about things — well, as good as you can be considering how large of a piece of the puzzle the team is seemingly missing.
After the offseason transfer of Yimmi Chara opened up a coveted Designated Player spot on the roster, the Timbers have teased for the last month to not just expect them to fill his role, but to make a splash in doing so.
But pump the brakes if you were hoping for it to happen before the start of the season.
“If I were to give it a timeline now, let’s say hopefully we’re in position within the next seven to 10 days,” Portland general manager Ned Grabavoy said Tuesday. “With the start of the season, it’s probably a player that we’ll hopefully be able to get in quickly once we have things finalized.”
Grabavoy said the Timbers are looking for an “attacking player, a goal scorer — a player that adds a different and a dangerous component to our attack.” And he says the organization has made a budget available to him that could exceed the price the team paid a year ago for Evander. And if you ask Neville, the first-year manager is expecting that future player to produce as such.
“From the very first moment I landed in America and was part of the MLS, I think the DPs are the ones that make the difference,” Neville said. “The DPs are the ones who decide whether you win or lose. The DPs are the ones that more often than not, win you games of football. Look at every MLS Cup winner over the last 15 to 20 years, their DPs are probably difference makers in terms of the goals that they score or the assists that they made. … We still need that difference maker. What we’re looking at is a DP that’s going to come into this football club and have the ability to carry the team on his back.”
No pressure, right?
Old vs. New
Most times I’m in Gill Coliseum I dislike it. And that’s because most times I’m in Gill Coliseum, it’s for football. It’s where the visiting team has traditionally done media after playing the Beavers across the street at Reser, and generally by November when I’m there for Ducks and Beavers, it’s cold, damp, late and How the hell are they still in the locker room? It’s been an hour already.
But, in the rare occasion I’m in the basketball arena for what it’s meant for, I’m reminded how much I enjoy a venue that has a little history to it. Gill is old. It very much feels like the same stadium all the greats painted up on the arena walls once played in. Sure, it’s gotten a face lift or two in recent years. The curved video screens are as nice as I’ve seen in the conference and certainly better than what they have in the far more modern Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene.
It’s certainly not a perfect place. Attendance caps out around 9,000, cement slabs for seats in press row are killer on the back and the urinals situation in the men’s room is certainly no place for the bashful.
But Gill feels lived in. I like that.
I don’t have a ton of suggestions for how Oregon can liven up Matthew Knight Arena. But my main focus would be this: Make it feel like you own the building.
Add some green. Maybe some yellow. Put a few jerseys up on those walls. Hang a banner. Hang all the banners. Honor your history.
It might not mean much, but I think that builds a little deeper of a connection to a place than a building that only relies on the product out on the floor.
It’s Rain Baseball Season
Fans of college baseball will rightfully put its late-season electricity up against anything else out there in sport. Even in Eugene, where baseball had long been stuck in the doldrums, postseason ball gripped the city for two weeks last year as Mark Wasikowski’s squad swept through the Nashville Regional and then gave Oral Roberts everything it could in a three-game Super Regional loss in Eugene.
It’s those warm, almost-summer evenings with a competitive team on the field that make you wonder why the Ducks don’t draw better year-round. Then the next season starts in the middle of February — just in time to let the weather, and the heart of the basketball season, rain all over its parade.