The Portland Timbers are moving forward with a privately funded $50 million stadium expansion plan that would add four new levels and approximately 4,000 new seats to the east side of Providence Park.

The Timbers, who unveiled a rendering of their expansion design Wednesday, have been in active discussions with the City of Portland as they've zeroed in on a viable plan and are set to submit their proposal to the City's Design Commission this week.

"We felt it was imperative to see how we could transform the stadium and add capacity to both meet the demand that we have for tickets and also position the club to be viable and competitive for years to come," Timbers President of Business Mike Golub said. "That has been the impetus for this process, which we hope is beginning to reach fruition."

The Timbers have been looking at ways to expand seating capacity at Providence Park for more than a year as they strive to meet demand for tickets - the club has 13,000 fans on its season ticket waiting list - and keep up with growing stadium capacity across MLS.

After exploring multiple expansion options, the Timbers ultimately partnered with Portland-based Allied Works Architecture to come up with a vertical expansion design that they believe will preserve the intimate fan experience at Providence Park while raising capacity to roughly 25,000.

The design calls for the construction of four new levels and a larger roof on the east side of the city-owned Providence Park, as well as the widening of the sidewalk and a covered arcade on SW 18th Ave. The first level of the new section will include enclosed club seating, the second and third levels will be for general seating and the fourth level will be for group seating that can be reserved by companies and large groups. There will be stairs and two high speed elevators leading up to the new levels.

No existing seats will be impacted by the new construction, except in that the new roof will cover more seats on the east side of the stadium. All of the new levels will also have their own concession stands, bars and bathrooms.

While the project is a considerable investment, it will be 100 percent privately financed by the Timbers and the club believes that it will ultimately be economically beneficial for the City of Portland, which collects a tax on every ticket the Timbers sell.

"We're willing to make an investment in the future of the club and the stadium," Golub said. "We want this to be a win for the City and a win for our fans."

The Timbers still have a handful of hurdles to jump over before they can move forward with the plan. They must still gain approval from the City, refine the design and work with the surrounding neighborhood associations, among other things.

The club will have its first advisory review meeting with the Design Commission on May 11 where the group will evaluate the expansion design and provide feedback. The Design Commission will ultimately need to approve the plan before it can move forward.

The Timbers are also in talks with the City about amending their operating agreement, which runs through 2035, to reflect the new expansion. The changes to the agreement will have to be approved by the Portland City Council, a process that the Timbers are hoping to see completed by this summer.

Assuming that the Timbers are able to move forward with the plan, the new construction would take place in two phases in back-to-back offseasons as to not disrupt the Timbers during the season. If everything is finalized by September, construction could begin as early as the 2017 offseason and conclude ahead of the 2019 season. If it takes longer to finalize the project, the beginning of construction could be pushed back to the 2018 offseason with the goal of finishing construction ahead of the 2020 season.

"Us being in a smaller market, we want to continue to be a top club in MLS and for us to do that, we need a stadium that is competitive as well," Golub said. "We want to be here for the long-term and we believe we need to invest in the stadium to ensure that."

 

Source:oregonlive.com

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