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You are clearly underestimated the popularity of the Portland Timbers. I would boldly say that they might be even more popular than the Portland Trail Blazers(NBA).
No, I wouldn't say that's entirely true. There's a lot of recent Timbers fans who hopped on the bandwagon and it is a growing fanbase recently(especially among kids). But often if you ask a lot of newer Timbers fans them to name five players who are actually on the Timbers they often can't even name more than a couple. People are getting into the Timbers--especially this year now that they've got a shot at a playoff run and are winning--but it's often a superficial fandom outside the diehard Timbers Army bunch. It's a popular ticket in town, because it's something new and there's no other sports teams in the summer to watch here.
On the other hand, the Blazers, even in their off years, still command more attention overall than the Timbers. I hear way more passionate debates about who the Blazers need to draft or trade for than the Timbers from your average sports fan in Portland. At the same time, among a certain segment of the population--and it get's way more pronounced in the suburbs and further out in the Willamette Valley--the biggest talk is about Ducks football and Beavers football. The Timbers might be Portland's team, but the Ducks are Oregon's team--and you'll find a lot more passion for them outside the sports bars in inner Portland that have soccer fans drinking at them(which there are a lot of these days--not just for the Timbers). But if you go into a blue collar bar in Portland the Ducks are going to be a much bigger deal to watch.
No, I wouldn't say that's entirely true. There's a lot of recent Timbers fans who hopped on the bandwagon and it is a growing fanbase recently(especially among kids). But often if you ask a lot of newer Timbers fans them to name five players who are actually on the Timbers they often can't even name more than a couple. People are getting into the Timbers--especially this year now that they've got a shot at a playoff run and are winning--but it's often a superficial fandom outside the diehard Timbers Army bunch. It's a popular ticket in town, because it's something new and there's no other sports teams in the summer to watch here.
On the other hand, the Blazers, even in their off years, still command more attention overall than the Timbers. I hear way more passionate debates about who the Blazers need to draft or trade for than the Timbers from your average sports fan in Portland. At the same time, among a certain segment of the population--and it get's way more pronounced in the suburbs and further out in the Willamette Valley--the biggest talk is about Ducks football and Beavers football. The Timbers might be Portland's team, but the Ducks are Oregon's team--and you'll find a lot more passion for them outside the sports bars in inner Portland that have soccer fans drinking at them(which there are a lot of these days--not just for the Timbers). But if you go into a blue collar bar in Portland the Ducks are going to be a much bigger deal to watch.
I see what you mean but I would love to hear a Portland area native elaborate more on this topic about the popularity of the Timbers in the city of Portland.
None. Does not exist, except maybe a small border town.
Yup. Even L.A. is a huge stretch. For starters, I don't recall many kids playing soccer growing up, and I grew up in a predominantly Latino neighborhood (Highland Park). In fact, I don't recall one conversation involving the 1994 World Cup at my school, despite the fact that several games were held at the nearby Rose Bowl. Yeah, Mexican-Americans don't assimilate
^ The Sounders are less popular than the crappy Mariners are. Mariners TV ratings are higher than the Sounders, and they play 162 games.
In Seattle, the Sounders are #5 behind:
Seahawks
Mariners
Huskies
Sonics (yes, Seattle has loads of Sonics fans sitting around thinking of what city's team to steal if there's no expansion)
If you count the Huskies for football and basketball, the Sounders drop to #6 in popularity.
You are totally exaggerating here.
I'd put the Seahawks at #1, Huskies at #2, and (currently) the Sounders at #3, above the Mariners. The Mariners have been awful for over 10 years. The Sounders have the biggest soccer fan base in the country. Have you seen Pioneer Square before a Sounders game?
I would say in Florence SC, the sport of soccer is more popular than football to play. More high school kids in the area want to play soccer than football plus there are more city soccer leagues than flag football. the high school soccer teams in Florence are usually pretty good while the football team is usually horrible.
but football especially college football is more popular for watching on tv than soccer by a long ways. that is going to be true anywhere in the country. soccer just isn't that much fun to watch.
I see what you mean but I would love to hear a Portland area native elaborate more on this topic about the popularity of the Timbers in the city of Portland.
Well, if you want to find a Portland-area native in Portland you go to the suburbs or outer neighborhoods for the most part...at last that's the joke about Portland these days.
The Timbers Army only goes back to 2001--and a lot of who started that was people who were transplants from other areas or other countries who were big soccer fans before they got here. Until the Timbers went to the MLS and before that the last couple years in the USL they barely outdrew the WHL junior hockey Portland Winterhawks in terms of attendance. And as someone who occasionally goes to both Timbers and Winterhawks games--there's still a lot more old school blue collar Portland types at Winterhawks games than the Timbers, which is much more of a trendy crowd along with a mix of foreign transplants who actually know about soccer. Timbers games have the rabid Timbers Army fans, but there's a lot of other people just there because it's sort of the "new thing to do" in Portland. Granted there has been a soccer fanbase in Portland through the old previous incarnations of the Timbers in the various failed US soccer leagues--but at the same time, it's always sort of been a niche market.
On the other hand you ask someone who grew up in Portland about the Trailblazers there's a good chance they'll rattle off the history of the 1977 championship season with Walton or the years as a contender when they had Clyde the Glide and Jerome Kersey and all those guys in the late 80s/early 90s. There was some bad years during the Jailblazer era, but even after that and the fact that the Blazers haven't won a playoff series in over a decade--they are still more popular and notable than the Timbers by far. I'm sure far more people can recognize Damian Lillard or LaMarcus Aldridge than anyone on the Timbers.
And if you work in Portland, you'll be working with a ton of people who went to U of O or Oregon State and are fiercely loyal to those teams--as well as the fact that the Ducks have been contenders for a national championship lately--and an NCAA football championship is arguably far more notable than who wins the MLS. And Beavers fans are the sort of the underdogs of the state, but they're all over the place and rabidly loyal to their team(and against the Ducks).
For a city without an NFL franchise as well--I know plenty of people far more excited about pro football than soccer in this town...
Well, if you want to find a Portland-area native in Portland you go to the suburbs or outer neighborhoods for the most part...at last that's the joke about Portland these days.
The Timbers Army only goes back to 2001--and a lot of who started that was people who were transplants from other areas or other countries who were big soccer fans before they got here. Until the Timbers went to the MLS and before that the last couple years in the USL they barely outdrew the WHL junior hockey Portland Winterhawks in terms of attendance. And as someone who occasionally goes to both Timbers and Winterhawks games--there's still a lot more old school blue collar Portland types at Winterhawks games than the Timbers, which is much more of a trendy crowd along with a mix of foreign transplants who actually know about soccer. Timbers games have the rabid Timbers Army fans, but there's a lot of other people just there because it's sort of the "new thing to do" in Portland. Granted there has been a soccer fanbase in Portland through the old previous incarnations of the Timbers in the various failed US soccer leagues--but at the same time, it's always sort of been a niche market.
On the other hand you ask someone who grew up in Portland about the Trailblazers there's a good chance they'll rattle off the history of the 1977 championship season with Walton or the years as a contender when they had Clyde the Glide and Jerome Kersey and all those guys in the late 80s/early 90s. There was some bad years during the Jailblazer era, but even after that and the fact that the Blazers haven't won a playoff series in over a decade--they are still more popular and notable than the Timbers by far. I'm sure far more people can recognize Damian Lillard or LaMarcus Aldridge than anyone on the Timbers.
And if you work in Portland, you'll be working with a ton of people who went to U of O or Oregon State and are fiercely loyal to those teams--as well as the fact that the Ducks have been contenders for a national championship lately--and an NCAA football championship is arguably far more notable than who wins the MLS. And Beavers fans are the sort of the underdogs of the state, but they're all over the place and rabidly loyal to their team(and against the Ducks).
For a city without an NFL franchise as well--I know plenty of people far more excited about pro football than soccer in this town...
So in other words your saying the Seattle Seahawks have a much higher popularity than the Timbers in Portland?
I had a strong feeling that was the case. I think some people on here were greatly underestimating how popular the Timbers are to the city of Portland.
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