(UPDATE: Yeah, I changed the title. “Memo to ____” doesn’t match the mood of the post.)
I’ve been mulling over the things I’ve written in my “screed of independence” (which continues to fill with comments now that the SoccerCity message board has found it) and have cede one point to the Timbers’ Army commenters: every member of the Timbers’ Army is twice the fan I am. Absolutely true: you do more to build the game outside the stadium and you do more to make the game interesting once it’s on. As for where I am, a comment left by “Vic,” absolutely nails it. Vengance seems to wish me bodily harm for something as close to nothing as you can get, and that’s more of what I expected when the SoccerCity message board found this post.
(The comments keep stacking up and I have a late, good one to flag: I’ve heard stories about trouble between Sounders fans and visiting Timbers fans, so what yabollox wrote makes sense, or at least explains the fervency I’m getting. I never had fan trouble – thankfully – ’cause I think it’s sub-moronic to the point where I have a rule of thumb about it: if you throw the first punch at an opposing fan and it’s, literally, in defense of nothing more than your team’s pride, the most unfortunate moment in your life came when the sperm met the egg. Long digression…sorry.)
But I appreciate the willingness of some people, in what has become a record comments thread, to write something simple as “glad you support the team,” even if they follow it up with, “but you’re not a fan.” If being a fan means wearing green underwear and singing songs with everyone else, no, I’m not that kind of fan. But I show up, I know what I’m watching, I know who I’m watching down to the individual players, along with their strengths and weaknesses, and I yell and whoop like it. There are people like me in every one of the “cathedrals of the game.” We’re here, we’re not really sure why, get used to it.
Turning to this specific post, I don’t hate Seattle ’cause I don’t see the point of it. As much as I want to see the home team win – and I do…just not desperately – I’m mainly there hoping for a good game and a good night. The funny thing is, I used to “get sick” watching my team, did the whole act really. But, one day, I realized it was just an act. Is everyone out there acting? I really doubt it. And I’m not about to question anyone’s sincerity because I don’t live in their head and it’s their life, not mine.
That’s kind of the point in the end. Why do I feel like it’s my job to speak for anyone who might feel guilt about sneaking up to Seattle for an MLS game? I can’t tell you. It’s just how I’m wired, precisely the same reason I follow the Timbers the way I do and why I’m slowly, but surely, turning on my old club, New England. I just like soccer and I don’t have it in me to fake caring about things I don’t care about. What I do know is that I’m paying money to support the business the Timbers Army loves; not counting concessions (which I don’t know that the club gets; in fact, I really doubt it), I’ve paid the Timbers’ organization easily over $1,000 down the years – and that’s on the inside; I’m absolutely horrified to think what I’ve given to places like the Marathon and the Bitter End down the years. And, no, I’m not looking for a thank you…jesus, I’m not stupid.
It was my love for places like the Marathon that took me back to Portland from the East Coast. If there’s one thing I resent in the above, it’s the throw-away line about “Portland being just an address” for me. (Damn shame that came from Obi, who I think is a mad genius for the Deborah Knapp thing…oh well.) I turned my life upside down in more ways than I can count to move back to Portland six years ago. I moved here out of simple love for the city itself, not the soccer team. And, as much as the city has changed, I don’t regret the move for a minute; the people drive me batty, but that’s a personal problem; PEOPLE drive me batty – goes back to wiring.
Anyway, that’s it from me. I’ll pay to see the Timbers as long as I live here and when I can afford it. So, let me support the team/teams I like in my own weird way, take my money, and we’ll all be happy.
Filed under: Major League Soccer, Portland Timbers, Seattle Sounders |
Center Holds It 
….Jeff grabs shovel…..starts digging furiously…..hole gets deeper….deeper…deeper…
Please just go back to writing shit stories about the shit MLS and their future shit team, the Sounders.
Postscript- How do still manage to type with your keyboard lodged up your urethra?
i love the timbers army, but i’m pretty disappointed by their reaction to these two posts. if there is no room in between the army and the casual fan, then the timbers will never fill up pge park like the army wants. there needs to be room for all sorts. after all, the people who make up the difference between the games with 6-8k in attendance and the games with 12-15k in attendance are not “true fans” almost by definition since they fail to make their religiously obligated hajj to each and every game. if the army wants the timbers to succeed, people like jeff need to be accepted and encouraged.
You Timbers fans need to get a grip on reality. You are Timbers fanatics, Jeff is a fan of the game. I’ll take that anyday, regardless of what team he is supporting.
You don’t need to be a fan of a team to be a fan of the game..it doesn’t matter who he supports
And to The NFD..I don’t see any of your posts lying around..if you don’t want to read ‘shit’ stories..then don’t come by here.
Hating something does not equal loving something else more. Never has, never will.
Soccer fans are welcome up north anytime.
Nobody with a brain minds if people come to Timbers matches and don’t stand for the full 90, paint their face, swear at the refs, whatever.
We’re happy for the big crowds and hope to win them over gradually to our brand of fandom. But if they’re more mellow about the thing, so be it.
But to claim simultaneously an affection for the Timbers and a willingness to support a Seattle team connected to the current management, facility and fans, as the MLS team probably will be, is anathema.
Those people have behaved dispicably toward both the Timbers players and fans for years, and if you had any significant emotional connection to the Timbers, or had been on a single trip to your nearest rival stadium for a derby match (another measure of true fandom, wouldn’t you agree?), you would be singing a different tune.
How to put it? For a true Timbers fan, rooting for Seattle in the MLS would be like being dumped by a girl for a richer, better-looking guy and then driving three hours to stand outside her bedroom window cheering for her to have great sex.
Maybe you have a sense of yourself that allows you to accept such treatment.
I don’t.
It’s official. I like Vic. He makes sense…and he understands grammar. Some heretofore unknown connection seems to exist between the capacity to believe that a keyboard can fit up a man’s urethra and blindness to the beauty of ellipses and semicolons. Contrary to what your 10th grade teacher told you, long sentences are allowed.
Vic, seriously. So much of that ‘treatment stuff’ is legend rather than fact.
Some of it is also self-fulfilling prophecy. If you are looking for a confrontation, you’ll likely be able to find one, even in places as completely mellow as Seattle and Portland.
No one up here in Seattle gives a rat’s ass if the TA hates the future of NW soccer, which is Seattle MLS.
The thousands and thousands of other Portland soccer fans who are not in hater’s central will now have a chance to drive to higher level football. That’s good news for them, and NW soccer in general.
dammit, I like ellipses. They are what I am…
I guess I don’t have enough time in-country to have built an ever-living hatred for all things Space-Needly. I suppose there should be a special education session that comes with my season tix.
(see, I even through a semi-colon in there)
It makes me sad and confused that when my 4, 6 and 10 year olds and I are chanting along (because that’s what makes the game a really cool experience for all of us), that what they’re *supposed* to be doing is lusting after the death (real or metaphorical) of anything connected with that Team That Must Remain Un-named.
I don’t care about the f-bombs or anything that might be “too sensitive” for their ears. That, in the immortal words of Crash Davis, some “weak-ass shit.” They’re smart enough to know that some words are “grownup words” and some aren’t. I’m going to curse and scream and taunt with the best of them, and they’re going to learn that sometimes, in some places, that’s okay. So don’t get me down as some “family-friendly nanny-ninny.”
But I didn’t know that I needed to teach hatred for them to be fans. Or there was some Omerta-code to sit in the North End.
And as much as I really want to think it’s theatre; posturing; you know, “some of my best friends are from Seattle” and all; but there are times, like reading these comment threads, that I wonder.
It makes me think back to being a 12-year old kid, not knowing any damb better because I shouldn’t have to, being told by drunk adults^H^H^H^Hasshats to “shut my goddam mouth or I’m going to kick your ass you little f……” when I didn’t root, root, root for the home team.
And it’s not that I’m not “root, root, rooting” for the home team. I’m just not *not* rooting for some theoretical team in a different league that may or may not happen someday. When they’re not playing the home team. And they’re in a different state.
I *know*, deep down, that it’s all show and bluster and silliness, and fun, just a bunch of people just wanting to feel included and tribal and all that deep genetic coded horseshit for two hours a week. I think. But the elimationist rhetoric is dark, dark humor indeed.
But what really, really bothers me? That totally weird tortured metaphor/simile about the girl and the richer guy and cheering for the good sex. I mean, if it were something like:
“It’s like having a perfectly wonderful, smart, sexy wife and driving three hours to watch a live sex-show between two pr0n stars. Sure, they’re fake, and when you see them up close when you realize they’re all covered in body acne and nasty scars and they’re so coked-up they can’t see straight and dumner than a bagful of hammers and to make matters worse, you’re blowing all of your money and you can’t touch anyone, even yourself, until you drive three hours back home.
And then your wife finds the ticket stubs.”
I’m on board with that.
And damb, I really, really tried to stick a keyboard in my urethra. The NFD must be…you know…gifted below the waist in order to even contemplate a move like that. Color me frightened and confused.
Major League Soccer is expected to add Seattle in 2009, with the Sounders probably going dark in 2008.
“That doesn’t mean Portland is not in the equation,” Gavin Wilkinson, Timbers coach says. “If Seattle is a success, it could help Portland get in.”
“So much of that ‘treatment stuff’ is legend rather than fact.”
Bullshit.
I have seen it and experienced it firsthand.
Fans of Atlanta, Charleston, Vancouver, Miami, Minnesota, Houston and many other clubs (including the Sounders) have come to PGE Park and been treated as guests by security and the Timbers Army alike.
And the Timbers Army has been to every stadium currently in the USL and most of the past ones during the current incarnation of the club and experienced the same.
But not at Qwest. Portland fans are singled out by security and Kings County police before they enter the stadium, have been maced and arrested for crimes that aren’t prosecuted, are harrassed for language that’s being used widely elsewhere in the stadium, are frisked and segregated, have been verbally abused by Qwest staff, etc. Repeatedly. And calm, rationale complaints to Sounders and Qwest management have been ignored, always.
Twice at PGE Park a Sounders player has deliberately kicked a ball into the Timbers Army, and twice at least a Sounders player has grabbed his wee little package and gestured lewdly at the TA.
There’s a lot more: personal attacks on Timbers Army-affiliated media, etc., etc., etc.
Some of this goes both ways, yes, but no one supporting the Sounders has ever received the sort of treatment from the Timbers organization or players or stadium security that is the regular bill of fare for the Timbers Army from your lot.
Funny a Seattle fan should talk about rat’s asses. Y’all spend a lot of time in close proximity to them.
Quote above from:
http://www.portlandtribune.com/sports/story.php?story_id=119126955646478900
Take a pill, Vic.
You can only speak about your own personl experiences. The minute you say “no one else from Seattle has ever experienced…” you lose any small amount of anti-rivalry credibility you might have had.
Karma.
So often suggested by TA as needing to strike Seattle. How ironic that the blinder of hatred keeps you from seeing your own feelings have such negative karmic impact for your very own club.
GOALSeattle should sit with the Timbers Army the next time we visit.
Thanks for the post. It gives Timbers fans something to talk about in the off season.
Examples, Karma boy?
When has anyone connected to the Sounders been mistreated by a paid employee of the Timbers or PGE Park?
I’ll add this: YES, Seattle fans have been hassled numerous times at PGE.
NO, we don’t whine about it.
Is whining the tradition you have claimed for yourselves?
I am obviously not an unbiased observer, but I’ll bet that’s how it looks to them.
When?
We have dozens of letter sent by certified mail to Sounders management detailing an impressive number of incidents.
You have your dubious unsupported word for it.
You get what you ask for. Why is that so hard for you to understand?
A precedent was set by the highly embarrassing leaders of the TA, such as Jeremy Wright. Now he takes an antogonistic approach upon entering the stadium.
He loves to get bothered so he can report back to his following about how bad ‘shittle’ is.
Seriously, how have so many nearsighted people managed to end up in that nice town I went to college in, and following soccer?
If you break the rules, you give any person ‘in charge’ reason to act. Even for the smallest infraction.
If you want to be left alone…then work on redoing your reputation so that when you come up here…the best is already expected of you, not the worst.
Just as I thought.
You’ve got nothing.
Well, you’re welcome Bourbon Crew. I try to start conversation.
You have lost all credibility with Qwest security and the Sounders FO.
Too much damage, whining, swearing, ejections, arrests, parking lot issues…etc.
As far as I know you have been unable to reconcile that over the years and numerous visits to Seattle.
(done engaging self in trying to get a broken record to say something new/relevant)
Good man, vic. I never saw this one ending, never mind well.
Jeff “The Insitgator” Bull…
yep, works for me…
Ouch. That one landed, Urban…
“Fans of Atlanta, Charleston, Vancouver, Miami, Minnesota, Houston and many other clubs (including the Sounders) have come to PGE Park and been treated as guests by security and the Timbers Army alike.”
I was at a timbers-sounders game at pge as a sounder fan. I’m a 22 y/o female, not exactly rowdy, or looking to start anything. I cheer my team, and thats what I’m there for.
I’ve had beer thrown at me.
Security has asked me and a friend to stay behind 20 min to wait for the ta to clear out because they were afraid for our safety. We then got a police escort to our car.
Yeah, I really feel welcome by the TA.
And no, I don’t waste my time writing to the Timbers Front office. Quite frankly its a waste of a .41cent stamp, and what are they gonna do? They’ve already got their own issues with the TA…
I’d like to take a moment to consider the gravity of my previous statement. You see, I was using connotative language when I said “Drench him in blood and feed him to the dogs.” Blood generally has a negative connotation in our society, but in many historical cases was considered magical. So you’re assuming that I was wishing harm upon you, when really, you should be proud to be a sacrifice for your home team. They can’t just go out and win on their own. We supporters have a direct effect on the team’s morale and it’s up to us to sacrifice a few virgins now and again. What can I say? We’re a pagan neo-tribal subculture.
Remember, love couldn’t exist without the love/hate dialectic.
Also, this post is tounge in cheek just like my last one. Don’t call the FBI on me.
Ah, now that’s a beautiful thing, Vengance. My virginity is, alas, long gone, but in reality, I did feel some pangs of guilt when I read about some of the good things* the Timbers Army has done locally, whether it’s very real acts of kindness on behalf of members or (I believe) other causes or doing quite a bit locally to build interest in the team. I suppose offering myself up for sacrifice is one way to assuage my guilt.**
(* This part is sincere. The Timbers Army does, in fact, have a decent reputation for supporting its members, helping players move (I think I read that once) and that is all entirely admirable…no tongue in cheek.)
(** This part, on the other hand, is not. I like my blood in my body. And, no, I wouldn’t call the FBI. I haven’t taken offense at anything in here, really. I highlighted Vengance’s comment from the first post, but took it as a statement informed by artistic license. I took the meaning as “Get bent. You’re an asshole” as opposed to a threat of violence.)
Jeff, glad to hear your not taking offense. I’d also like to take back one of my comments. Your writing is not shit. The MLS and the Sounders are still, however, filthy dirty excrement.
You know my 10th grade English teacher? Mrs. Dorothy Mantooth- she’s a saint.
There is nothing wrong with long sentences, ellipses, commas and hyphens. They just need to be used properly.
Enjoy watching your subpar soccer in the dreadful atmosphere that is Qworst. And say “hi” to Daryl and the lunch lady for us.
You’re lucky. My 10th grade teacher was Ms. Yount. Did absolutely everything she could to kill off any love for the English language. Then I started reading all those people who broke the rules.
All right. I’m announcing my retirement from the discussion. I’ve got to get back to the grind to which I’ve assigned myself: an MLS/National team beat.
I think the place to end my part of this discussion comes with this: It’s clear that many of you think I don’t make any sense or think there’s something I’m not getting. This is a two-way street. Do you think you guys make sense to me? I think we’ve explained our respective positions to the extent possible and I’m not walking away a changed man. And I know none of you are either.
to “a fan says”:
I’m sorry about your having a beer thrown at you at PGE Park. Genuinely. (Not that I did it, mind you: not at those beer prices (joke))
I don’t blame anyone who is treated like that by another attendee at a sporting event for being angry.
But it seems like the security folks intervened in a way to keep you safe, which is what they’re there for, agreed?
And that’s exactly the opposite of what happens when our people visit Qwest.
Again, I’m sorry for your bad experience.
And, like Jeff, I’m done here.
I feel I want to be a part of this rivalry since I already am a Buckeye and hate all things Michigan.
But which side to choose?
Wow. Where have I been? I missed out on all the digital controversy. Man, if only I could talk somebody into giving Vegas some controversy worth getting involved in. Somehow, I can’t help but think that if Vegas got a team, we’d never have interesting “debates” like this. STD’s would obviously be a concern, but this… this was magical.
I’ll take the STDs, thanks.
The reason why the TA is harassed at Qwest is because they didn’t police themselves. When you throw objects on the field, run onto the field, assault a fan, break into closed off parts of the stadium, and throw lit flare around a parking lot, it’s not going to endear you to security, especially if your reaction is along the lines of, “We have no leaders so we can’t tell anyone to stop bad behavior.” There is a fine line between a rivalry that enhances the game and one that scares people away from going to games.
If the Timbers’ Army would come to games, support their team, chant and sing for 90 minutes, and then cheer/commiserate afterwards, security wouldn’t give the group a second look. However, if you’re going to try to act like groups that have a history of violence, don’t be surprised if people worry that the threats aren’t just for show. Soccer isn’t a mainstream enough sport in the US to handle the repercussions that would come out of a major incident.