PORTLAND, Ore. – When the Portland Timbers take the field at Providence Park against Real Salt Lake on September 10 (7:30pm PT, ROOT SPORTS), the team and its fans can celebrate an accomplishment that few other MLS franchises have ever achieved: 100 consecutive regular-season sellouts.
According to the longest-tenured members of the Timbers, the enthusiasm and passion from the stands has been there from the very beginning. All of the pent-up excitement surrounding the team's entry into Major League Soccer poured out of the stands during the team's home opener against the Chicago Fire in 2011, a 4-2 Timbers victory.
“As soon as I arrived I could feel the buzz within the city and the buildup to the first game,” says Timbers midfielder Jack Jewsbury, who arrived via trade in March of that year. “When we stepped out for the starting line-ups for the Chicago game in the season opener, it absolutely blew me away with the support we were going to have and you could just tell that we would have something special here for a long time.”
Goalkeeper Jake Gleeson, who first came to Portland in 2010 as part of the club's Timbers U-23s team, remembers the goosebumps he got when he had the opportunity to play in front of that first MLS home crowd.
“I still remember...just thinking to myself, 'I don't think these fans can get any louder,'” he recalls. “It was probably the biggest game in my career so far, but as soon as the ball started rolling it was just excitement to be in front of the fans and in front of the city in such a massive game and such a massive part of Timbers history.”
“[The first match against Chicago] was amazing,” remembers midfielder Diego Chara. “The crowd, the people, the team – I think that moment was one of my best memories in Portland.”
No one in the stadium that day, least of all rookie attacker Darlington Nagbe, could have imagined that such an auspicious start would mark only the first of 99 more regular-season sell-outs over the next five years.
“I wasn't expecting to sell out every single game,” Nagbe admits now. “I expected some games would maybe be a packed house: rivalry games, Seattle games, big games. But here every game mattered, whether in the playoff hunt or out of the playoff hunt. Every game it's been packed and the fans have been there every step of the way.”
These four players – Jewsbury, Gleeson, Chara, and Nagbe – have seen it all. Since 2011, they've experienced highs and lows, but through it all, they've had the unwavering support and commitment of the over 21,000 Timbers faithful who have turned up at Providence Park each and every week, rain or shine, to cheer on the boys in green and gold.
“The funny thing is you come every week and the fans show up and they sing and cheer, so it's not like each week's different,” says Gleeson. “Every week they show up and give it their all.”
Jewsbury goes even further; the veteran midfielder, who spent eight seasons in Kansas City before he came to Portland, says that Providence Park is a place unlike everywhere else he's ever played. That's a sentiment, he explains, shared by other players around the league as well.
“I truly believe that the atmosphere here is unlike any other,” he says. “When you talk to guys around the league, this is one of the most exciting trips of the year...They look forward to the game because they know they're going to experience something different in terms of the atmosphere and what they get when they play the Portland Timbers.”
Chara, who came to Portland from Colombia's Deportes Tolima in 2011, could hardly agree more.
“I think that in my opinion, it's special [to play at Providence Park] because of the people; all game, they show a lot of energy and sing and I don't know how to explain [it], but it's a great feeling to play in Providence Park.”
Gleeson, the longest-tenured player on the team and now the team's starting goalkeeper, has seen how things have changed – in 2006, on a visit with a New Zealand youth national team, Gleeson even watched Timber Jim in action – and how the fans and team have evolved. He's quick, however, to point out the one thing that's remained constant throughout his tenure here: the city's decades-long love affair with the sport.
“To have 100 sellouts consecutively is something special and we definitely don't take it for granted as a team, the fans showing up every week, and we really appreciate everything they do. I think it's just a testament to how strong the love for soccer is here in Portland.”
And Nagbe, the player who admits that he had no idea what to expect when he first arrived here from the University of Akron, now lights up when he talks about the future of the team and its fans.
“I think for the players and the team, we're excited by the loyalty that [the fans have] shown us and the last year was a good way to pay them back by us winning a championship, and at the same time for the fans, I'm sure they're proud that they've been able to sell out 100 consecutive games and hopefully we can do it again for another 100 more.”
