page_title: History of the Portland Timbers franchise
section_title: MLS Days (2011–)
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Portland Timbers franchise / MLS Days (2011–)
caption_attribution_description: John Spencer at the Home Depot Center
context_page_description: The history of the Portland Timbers stretches back to 1975, when the original Timbers club joined the North American Soccer League, to the present club that plays in Major League Soccer.
context_section_description: The announcement was the culmination of a nearly two-year-long process for Merritt Paulson, dating back at least to May 2007, when Paulson led a group that bought the Portland Beavers and the USL Timbers. The group included former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson (Meritt Paulson's father) who holds a 20% stake.  The biggest issue for the city of Portland was that due to league concerns about seating configuration, field surface, and scheduling, obtaining an MLS franchise would require a new stadium.
  In October 2007, Paulson told PGE Park could be upgraded for about $20 million, and a new baseball stadium (with 8,000 to 9,000 seats) would cost about $30 million. By November 2008, Paulson told The New York Times he expected Portland taxpayers would spend $85 million to "build a new baseball stadium for his Beavers and renovate PGE Park—just remodeled in 2001 at a cost to taxpayers of $38.5 million—for soccer", and that in exchange, he would spend $40 million for the franchise fee to bring a new Major League Soccer team to Portland.  MLS was in support of the proposal, wanting to continue to expand the number of owners in the league (for a while, all of its teams were owned by three men: Phil Anschutz, Lamar Hunt, and Robert Kraft).
  Supporting the MLS franchise raised numerous issues for Mayor Sam Adams and the Portland City Council, in spite of a subsequent commitment from Paulson that Peregrine LLC would contribute $12.5 million towards stadium construction.  In order to justify the $88.8 million of city dollars Peregrine LLC wanted for PGE Park renovation and Beavers relocation, the city had to assume that Paulson's revenue projections were accurate (e.g. "2011 ticket revenues from baseball will be 95 percent higher than revenues in 2008"), cut some street maintenance and cleaning, and cut about $150,000 from the streetlight budget.  The city's use of existing urban renewal district funds and establishment of a new district that "stretches the statutory requirement that a district suffer urban blight" creates budgetary and potentially legal problems and drain millions of dollars from Multnomah County's general fund.
  The Portland franchise was announced as Major League Soccer's eighteenth team on March 20, 2009 by Commissioner Don Garber. The announcement occurred in the middle of the first and second-round games of the 2009 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament being held in Portland the same week.  The announcement noted that the team would retain the Portland Timbers name.
  The team owner is Peregrine Sports, LLC, a group led by Merritt Paulson.  Paulson is also the head of Shortstop LLC, which previously owned the USL-1 Timbers as well as the Pacific Coast League's Portland Beavers.
  Former MLS forward and assistant coach John Spencer was named the first head coach of the MLS-era Timbers on August 10, 2010.  It was also announced that Gavin Wilkinson, head coach of the USL-1/USSF D-2 Timbers, will stay on as the general manager/technical director of the MLS side.
caption: John Spencer was named the coach of the Timbers for the 2011 campaign.
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