“City Coming Alive”: Thorns FC, Timbers Become First Pro Teams In Oregon To Welcome Back Fans - Sport Oregon Voices

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Featuring new fan-experience enhancements and safety measures, Providence Park ushers in a new season of events by hosting fans at a limited capacity

The start of any new sports season is always a special time. It’s a time for optimism, where each team is on equal terms in the standings and theoretical championships are up for grabs. It’s a time where we become reacquainted with our favorite familiar players, and are introduced to new ones. It’s a time that restores a sense of familiar routines to coaches, players, team executives and fans, as they follow the ups and downs of their teams and players.

Try as it might, not even a pandemic can interrupt the foundational tenets of this season-opening optimism. With that in mind, Portland Thorns FC and the Portland Timbers have had an extra bounce to their collective step as their respective 2021 campaigns kicked off this month. Following a year-plus of playing to empty stadiums due to COVID-19 safety measures, both teams have been able to welcome back fans to Providence Park this year, albeit at a limited capacity, with state guidelines allowing 15-25 percent of the stadium’s capacity to attend in-person, depending on the current risk level.  

While the Timbers were able to play two home games in front of fans before the shutdown at the start the 2020 season, this year’s April 9 home opener for Thorns FC – a 2-1 victory over Kansas City to start the preseason NWSL Challenge Cup – marked the first time the club played in front of a live audience at its home stadium since the end of the 2019 campaign. Once again, the team was able to feed off the tangible energy generated by its loyal fan base, even at reduced numbers, returning to their traditional routine of saluting the fans at game’s end and, of course, taking part in the traditional rose ceremony in front of supporters.

In addition to the effect the fans have on the atmosphere and energy of the stadium, though, team officials are bullish on the impact their return will have on any number of ancillary areas throughout the city, namely the psychological and economic effects it brings.

“We think that the return of fans and the city coming alive around Thorns and Timbers games will be a big part of the healing and a part of the overall return to normalcy,” said Mike Golub, president of business for the Timbers and Thorns FC. “It’s a good thing for the community and for the overall vibe and feeling of coming back.”

This sentiment is one that resonates with many who realize the importance of these types of activities and their role as catalysts for economic health and recovery, in a variety of ways. For their first nine seasons in Major League Soccer prior to the pandemic, the Timbers played to full-capacity crowds for every regular-season and playoff game held at Providence Park, while the Thorns are the world’s most attended women’s professional sports team of any kind, routinely averaging in the neighborhood of 20,000 fans per game.

“It’s well documented and established that when we have a Timbers and Thorns game and 25,000 people descend into the downtown core, that it not only brings life to several neighborhoods but really has a direct economic boost for a variety of businesses, and not just in the immediate vicinity,” Golub said. “We hear from businesses from a fairly wide radius in the city, about how impactful a Timbers or Thorns game is to their business. People will come in early, grab a meal and go shopping, and it’s just a palpable thing for businesses, and not just restaurants and bars. Even though we’re still at limited capacity, I think it’s already been felt, we hope, by the business community and the community at large, and that will only grow as we are able to grow capacity.”

With their home opener earlier this month, the Thorns became the first professional sports team in the state and one of the first on the West Coast to welcome back fans. This presented the opportunity for the joint executive and operations staff of both teams to implement a number of new features aimed at not only ensuring proper health and safety protocols at the stadium, but also at increasing efficiencies throughout the stadium for the betterment of the overall fan experience.

The teams used the offseason to implement a number of new features, including going to a completely digital ticketing system and converting Providence Park to a cashless facility for all in-stadium transactions. Additionally, the Timbers and Thorns FC have rolled out a mobile ordering system for food, beverage and merchandise at games. Games at the stadium also feature health and safety standards such as mandatory mask-wearing, enhanced sanitation protocols and spaced pod seating to ensure proper distancing for fans.

In preparing for the new season from a fan-accommodation standpoint, one of the first tasks for the team’s executive staff was to completely remap the stadium’s seating configuration, creating a series of manifests to accommodate the spaced seating groups of one, two and four to meet the new parameters for distancing within the stadium.

And now with a couple games under their belts, Golub says the start of the season has gone very smoothly from the fan-experience and operations perspective, and credits the teams’ supporters for their efforts.

“Fans have been very understanding, very flexible and also very observant,” he said. 

One area of the stadium’s operations that has been an increasingly significant part of the teams’ business success in recent years – and substantially bolstered with the 2019 transformation and expansion project to the stadium – is that of community and special events held at Providence Park. While this area of the not surprisingly saw a marked dip in 2020, Golub says it is starting to pick up.

“We’ve always envisioned that Providence Park is home to a wide variety of events, large and small, and that piece of the business is really beginning to get traction again,” Golub said.

On the larger side, plans are in the works to bring “Topgolf Live” to Providence Park later this year, temporarily converting the stadium to accommodate the popular Topgolf experience as part of the company’s stadium series that travels to some of the most iconic venues in the country. In terms of soccer, a recent report in the Washington Post indicates two of the top international women’s teams – Olympique Lyonnais and FC Barcelona – with join Thorns FC and the Houston Dash in the Women’s International Champions Cup to be held at Providence Park this August.

And then there’s the Timbers, who, by advancing to the quarterfinals of the Concacaf Champions League recently, will play host to one of the top clubs on the continent on April 28 when they take on Club America at Providence Park. That’s just part of an action-packed first month for the Timbers, who mark their MLS home opener April 24 against Houston, eventually travel to Mexico City for a second-leg match against Club America on May 5, and then return home to face the rival Seattle Sounders FC at Providence Park on May 9.

On the sponsorship side, the Timbers and Thorns FC credit their current partners for their flexibility during the start-and-stop, unpredictable nature of last season, while adding a number of new sponsors to the mix. During the offseason, the teams announced a multi-year partnership with TikTok, with the popular video-sharing social media service featuring as the official jersey sleeve partner of both teams.  

Make no mistake about it, these are busy times at the venerable stadium on the corner of SW 18th and Morrison. For many – including the teams themselves – hearing this and seeing this in action is such a breath of fresh air, and is indicative of the positive momentum that sports has the ability to so uniquely provide and inspire.

“Sports has always been part of how our country bounces back from tough times,” said Golub. “I think sports will be a major variable in getting back to normal, raising the spirts, soothing and uniting the way that only sports can do.”

If You’re Going

Those interested in tickets to a Portland Timbers or Portland Thorns FC game should regularly check the teams’ social media accounts and websites for Annual Member presale and public on-sale information. For more information on the enhanced health and safety protocols at Providence Park, click here.