Timbers notebook: On the training facility, the transfer window and moving on from Toronto
The Portland Timbers join MLS' facilities arms race.
BEAVERTON — There was a time when Portland’s 6,000-square-foot indoor training facility with two outdoor practice fields on leased land from Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District was considered among the best in the MLS.
“From the beginning, it was a top priority for us to build a training facility befitting our goals as an organization,” owner Merritt Paulson said upon the facility’s opening in April 2012. “This substantial investment reflects our long-term commitment to winning and top-to-bottom success.”
The MLS has changed quite a bit in the 13 years since, and so has the standard of what’s considered “Best in Class” when it comes to training facilities. Most recently, first-year franchise San Diego FC opened up a facility which includes 50,000 square feet of indoor space and five outdoor fields for training. But it’s not just the 13 franchises that have come into the league since Portland joined MLS that have newer facilities, with teams such as New England, Philadelphia and, yes, Seattle showing off lavish upgrades in recent years.
So no, even after a pair of renovations that increased its indoor space to 24,000 square feet and its financial investment to $15 million, Portland’s facility is no longer considered state-of-the-art.
The vision is that Tuesday changes that.
Alongside general manager Ned Grabavoy, Beaverton Mayor Lacey Beaty and incoming THPRD board president Alfredo Moreno, Paulson took to Portland’s practice field to announce the Timbers’ latest move in the MLS arms race: the club had purchased the 13-acre property from THPRD for $25 million, including the 90,000-square foot building of which the organization currently occupies a third.
There are immediate plans to install a second grass pitch, a viewing deck and increased office space for the club’s staff. In the future, Paulson said the plan is to build an indoor practice surface.
“We will never need more than 13 acres, I don’t care what happens,” Paulson said. “This is as big a site plot as we could want and it’s got the best positioning we could have in this metro area. It’s so close to Providence Park. It’s so close to where everybody lives. I mean, when I come out there from my office at the stadium, it’s a nine-minute drive depending on traffic.
“That footprint’s big enough that I don’t see a point in the future where we don’t have more than enough space for whatever happens in MLS, and I don’t think we’ll ever need more than three fields, but we’ve got the blueprint for that as well.”
Said Mayor Beaty: “What you see now is five years of good work and relationship building together to make something like this happen. This is turning a Parks and Rec facility into an economic engine that’s going to start paying property taxes. For Beaverton, that’s a really big deal.”
And it seems like the Timbers have an eye on showcasing the facility to more than just the home team. With North America hosting the 2026 World Cup, both Paulson and Neville mentioned the facility providing access to the game’s elite.
“Let’s say the U.S. national team is training out here, or another big national or club team, we’re now set up to host them in a top-class locker room of their own. They can use our facilities,” Paulson said. “There’s definitely nuances to this that are additive and creative to us in our position in sort of the national soccer landscape.”
Added Neville: “When you see the way that clubs are developing in the MLS, training facilities are a big part of how you develop players, how you coach players. The number of pitches you have, the facilities that you have inside are almost a non-negotiable now in football. In a year’s time, when the best teams are coming to America, they’re going to be training at the best training facilities. And without a shadow of a doubt, I think we will have the best training facility in the Pacific Northwest.”
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Given the opportunity, Neville would have spent his entire Tuesday media availability talking about the “massive step forward” the club took with the news of the facility investment.
Portland’s manager had less interest in talking about the past, specifically Portland’s 3-0 loss on Saturday at Eastern Conference speedbump Toronto.
“No, no,” Neville said when conversation turned from the sale to the pitch. “Training facility.”