There is plenty to be excited about tonight’s home debut for the Timbers. Below are some videos that may help get you hyped up for it.

Here Comes Joey

JELD-WEN Field Time Lapse

Maybe I’m wrong and the new logo which will debut on June 12 will surprise me.

I guess in a way they figure to start a new era in MLS they need to have a new(ish) look and feel to them. I just hope they don’t mess with this current look too much.

Maybe it will end up looking like this logo that was talked about a while back:

The Portland Timbers still have a year before they enter Major League Soccer but they are already making sure their roster will be MLS-ready. Today they signed veteran keeper Adin Brown. MLS fans will remember Brown from his time in New England back in 2002-04, he lead the Revs to a MLS Cup final in 2002.

I love this move for a couple reasons, not only do the Timbers get a quality veteran keeper this year but they also completely skip over the crazy MLS allocation process to get Brown. You see, Brown would normally go through the MLS allocation system to be placed with a club. Now Portland will have one of the first cracks at a player next year (along with Vancouver) meaning they still have a shot at a quality player. This is in a way almost a two-for-one deal.

Now Brown isn’t fully healthy yet but reports suggest he will be good to go by the middle of June. Even more important he should be 100% for the first MLS season in Portland.

Very smart of Portland to get this deal done if you ask me. It makes them better now for their USSF Division II season and for next year.

Merritt Paulson signs the official expansion letter with MLS. (photo via Portland Timbers)

The final hurdle to bring Major League Soccer to Portland was cleared on today when the Portland City Council voted 4-1 to approve $31 million in funding to renovate PGE Park. The vote means the Portland Timbers expansion team can begin play in 2011 as planned.

As we all know Portland and Vancouver will join the league next year to put MLS at 18 clubs. Portland had a long history of issues with getting the proper money to renovate PGE Park but with that all now out of the way the club can focus on getting everything in line for next season.

Great news for the Rose City.

PGE Park renovation renderings. (Portland Timbers)

Details of PGE Park’s $31million renovation for the Portland Timbers’ move to Major League Soccer in 2011 was released Monday to The Oregonian. Renderings show exactly how they plan on making PGE a soccer facility for good.

The biggest transformation will be the stadium’s east side. A public plaza at the corner of 18th Avenue and Morrison Street will form the main entrance, extend toward the field and include a team store open even on non-gamedays.

A sit-down restaurant will serve 1,444 midfield seats, a community meeting room will be built next to the restaurant and three group and family decks will be built for events and extra seating. A cover will jut over most of the roughly 4,000 east-section seats, echoing the existing wooden overhangs in the 83–year-old stadium.  Additional restrooms and concession stands will serve the new seating areas.

Work is expected to be done started in January in time for the 2011 season.

Timbers owner Merritt Paulson said the capacity will be expanded from it’s current 16,000 to somewhere between 20,000 and 24,000, including a north auxiliary area that will be closed for most games.

PGE Park Renovation renderings. (Portland Timbers)

The only real bad news is the field, it probably won’t be grass like most MLS fans would want.

The renovation details come with a concession: Though hard-core soccer fans wanted the Timbers’ re-vamped home to include grass, the playing surface almost certainly will be artificial turf, Paulson said.

The stadium’s reality is rainy springs and falls, and the need to accommodate the Portland State football team, high school games and other events. Crisscrossing field lines for football and soccer when those seasons overlap would be far more difficult to manage on grass, Paulson said.

“We’re going to have days where we play soccer right after football games, and on a rainy day, the field would be utterly destroyed,” he said.

I guess we can let the complaining on PGE Park begin out of fans and players. I know FieldTurf is an eyesore to most but it isn’t the absolute worst thing in the world and it’s come a long way from its AstroTurf days.

I think overall it’s exciting news to hear and see details of their plans for this stadium (finally). Hopefully the work gets done on time and things work out for Paulson and company.

PGE Park renovation renderings. (Portland Timbers)

Makes me want to fast forward a bit to 2011 to see this rivalry in Major League Soccer.

No word on if the scarves will just say Portland 2011 or if Timbers will be included on it.

What: Rally and Press Conference Announcement

When: 9:30 a.m., Friday March 20

Where: Portland Hilton
921 SW Sixth Avenue, Portland Oregon

And the Timbers Army and supporters who rallied a couple weeks ago are asked to show up once again and be even louder than before.

What do you make of this news? I know I am excited to see Portland get in. Funny how the league decided to just do it all at once while they were out in Vancouver.