Jeld - Wen Field Jeld - Wen Field ( formerly PGE Park ; Civic Stadium ; originally Multnomah Stadium ; and from 1893 until the stadium was built , Multnomah Field ) is an outdoor sports stadium located in the Goose Hollow neighborhood of Portland , Oregon , United States that is used primarily for soccer and American football . It opened in 1926 and underwent major renovations in 2001 , with naming rights being bought by Portland General Electric ( PGE ) , and again in 2011 when the naming rights were sold to Jeld - Wen in preparation for the 2011 Major League Soccer season . The stadium sits on a rectangular block bounded by Southwest Morrison Street , Southwest 18th Avenue , the Multnomah Athletic Club building and Southwest Salmon Street , and Southwest 20th Avenue . Description . Jeld - Wen Field is an outdoor stadium which houses the MLS Portland Timbers , NWSL Portland Thorns , and Portland State University Vikings football . The stadium underwent a $ 31 million renovation in late 2010 and early 2011 . The stadium is owned by the City of Portland , and is managed by Peregrine Sports , LLC , the entity that owns the Timbers . Prior to the 2011 MLS season , the stadium was renamed Jeld - Wen Field from PGE Park , in a partnership with Klamath Falls , Oregon based company Jeld - Wen . The Multnomah Athletic Club , an athletic club in downtown Portland , stands next door ; the windows of the north side of the club ' s building overlook the field . The Interstate 405 freeway in Portland is also known locally as the Stadium Freeway and travels near the stadium . In addition , the Jeld - Wen Field MAX Light Rail station is across the street . The property slopes significantly downhill from the north end to the south end , with the result that the playing surface sits well below street level . Tenants . The stadium is currently home to the Portland Timbers of MLS , Portland Thorns FC of NWSL , and the Portland State University Vikings football team . Former tenants . The Portland Beavers minor - league baseball team of the Pacific Coast League played at the stadium from 1956 to through 1993 , and again from 2001 to 2010 . Plans for a new stadium for the Beavers in 2010 did not come to fruition and team owner Merritt Paulson put the Beavers up for sale . The club ' s major - league parent , the San Diego Padres , purchased the team , which will play in Tucson , Arizona as the Tucson Padres . The team played its final game at the stadium on September 6 , 2010 . From 1973 to 1977 , the stadium hosted the minor league baseball Portland Mavericks , and 1995 to 2000 , the Portland Rockies . The stadium hosted the USFL ' s Portland Breakers , as well as the Portland Storm and Portland Thunder of the WFL . Soccer has been hosted at Jeld - Wen since the original Portland Timbers were founded in the original in 1975 . Various iterations of the team have called the stadium home , including the 1980s version in the Western Soccer Alliance and the 2000s version in the USL First Division before the MLS club was formed . History . The stadium was built by the Multnomah Athletic Club in 1926 , though Multnomah Field ( sports fields with various grandstands ) had stood on the site since 1893 . Originally known as Multnomah Field , then , in 1926 , Multnomah Stadium , the site was used for college football ( including seven Civil War games between the University of Oregon and Oregon State University ) , cricket matches and greyhound racing . Until larger campus stadiums were built in the 1960s , most significant football games hosted by Oregon and Oregon State were held at this site because of its larger capacity . Oregon played in 107 games at Multnomah between 1894 and 1970 . The University of Washington played all its road games against Oregon and Oregon State at Multnomah Field / Multnomah Stadium until 1966 ( OSU ) and 1967 ( Oregon ) . The site also hosted the Portland Rose Festival coronation and a Fourth of July appearance by President Warren G . Harding . Early renaming and renovations . In the 1950s , the Portland Beavers moved to the stadium after their original field , Vaughn Street Park , was condemned . In 1966 , the Multnomah Athletic Club sold the stadium for $ 2 . 1 million to the city of Portland , which renamed it Civic Stadium . A $ 38 . 5 million renovation took place in 2001 , adding new luxury suites and club seats that replaced the seats behind home plate and upgrading the seating and concourse area . The renovation also improved the structural soundness of the facility , and included a state - of - the - art sound system . The renovation also includes some retro - features , such as a manually operated baseball scoreboard . At that point , PGE bought the naming rights and renamed the stadium PGE Park . 2011 renovation . In July 2009 , the Portland city council approved a $ 31 million renovation to make it ready for the 2011 Major League Soccer season , by reconfiguring the stadium primarily for soccer and football . The renovation was performed by Turner Construction who served as the General Contractor and also performed the 2001 renovation and Ellerbe Becket as the primary architect . The renovation meant that the Portland Beavers needed to move to a new stadium , which was never built , forcing the team to leave Portland . Early reports indicated that about 6 , 500 seats would be added , but a later presentation to the Portland Design Commission indicated that only 5 , 000 seats would be added bringing top capacity to about 22 , 000 , but with only about 18 , 000 available for use on a regular basis . The announced attendance at Timbers games in 2011 was 18 , 627 , a sell - out , until a few thousand seats were added for two games late in the season . About two thousand seats were opened up for the 2012 season , bringing capacity up to 20 , 438 . The renovation met Major League Soccer standards , introduced new amenities and a new playing surface , and shifted the playing surface west and north , and added space on the east and south sides , with new seating areas . The Lighthouse Impact 16 main video screen was designed by Anthony James Partners and features over 74 square meters of LED video . A Lighthouse B10 pitchside display runs the length of Jeld Wen Field ’ s east side plus portions of the north and south ends and is over 152 meters long . As the project was nearing completion , it was revealed to be $ 5 million over budget making the total cost of the renovation $ 36 million . The agreement between the city and Timbers owner Merritt Paulson meant that Paulson was responsible for any cost overruns larger than $ 1 million . The newly renovated stadium made its debut on April 14 , 2011 when Major League Soccer ' s Portland Timbers defeated the Chicago Fire 4 – 2 . At the end of the 2012 season , the Timbers front office announced that they planned to widen the pitch for the 2013 season , adding two yards on each side for a pitch size of . Noteworthy events . On September 2 , 1957 , Elvis Presley performed one of the first outdoor stadium rock concerts in music history ( Elvis held the first ever in Vancouver , BC , Canada just a few days earlier at Empire Stadium ) here on his four day tour of the Pacific Northwest . The concert created mass hysteria and an estimated 14 , 000 people attended the concert . On August 28 , 1977 , it was site of the North American Soccer League Soccer Bowl between the New York Cosmos and the Seattle Sounders , which was to be the last official game of the legendary Pelé as the Cosmos won the championship . During the 1970s , the Jantzen swim wear company had a 3D model of the Jantzen girl hovering overby cable over the left field wall in its baseball configuration . The Jantzen girl was in play because it was below the top of the wall and it was hit a couple of times over the years . On May 27 , 1991 , the stadium received national attention when Vancouver Canadians outfielder Rodney McCray , while attempting to catch a fly ball , literally crashed through a wooden advertisement behind the warning track in right - center field , just to the right of the 369 - foot sign ; a real - life version of an incident in the fictional book and film , " The Natural " . While McCray failed to make the out , he only suffered scrapes and bruises in the incident ( unlike the fictional " Bump Bailey " , whose injuries were fatal ) , and remained in the game . Highlight reels of that play ran for weeks on cable channels such as CNN and ESPN . On August 12 , 2006 , the Beavers commemorated the event with a Rodney McCray Bobblehead Night , passing out bobblehead s of McCray to fans and renaming right - center field " McCray Alley " . The stadium was the site of four group matches in the 1999 Women ' s World Cup and hosted two group matches , two quarterfinals , and both semifinals in the 2003 Women ' s World Cup . On September 7 , 1997 the stadium hosted a World Cup soccer qualifying match between the United States men ' s national team and Costa Rica . A raucous capacity crowd of 27 , 396 saw the U . S . squad win 1 – 0 on a goal by Tab Ramos in the 79th minute . On October 27 , 2007 , the stadium hosted the highest - scoring game in modern NCAA football history , when the Weber State University Wildcats defeated the PSU Vikings 73 – 68 , a combined point total of 141 points . This point total eclipsed the previous NCAA record of 136 points , set in a 1968 Division III game , and the previous Division I record of 133 points , set in 2004 . While this record lasted only two weeks , and has been surpassed three times in all , it remains the highest - scoring game involving NCAA Division I teams . ( The actual all - time college record was the 222 – 0 win by Georgia Tech over Cumberland in 1916 . ) On July 1 , 2009 , the venue hosted the third - round match of the Lamar Hunt U . S . Open Cup between the Portland Timbers and their rivals the Seattle Sounders FC . On July 15 , 2009 , it hosted the Triple - A All - Star Game , with the International League stars defeating the Pacific Coast league 6 – 5 . 16 , 657 fans attended the game , the largest crowd for a Triple - A All - Star game since 1991 , and the third largest ever . Feral cat colony . The field has been home to a feral cat colony since approximately 1985 , which may have been at the park before the current stadium opened in 1926 . There are an estimated 12 – 19 cats in the colony , referred to as " living rat traps " . After a construction worker killed a feral cat in 2000 , the park enlisted the Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon to assist the animals during construction efforts and to run a trap - neuter - return program . The cats are discussed in Chuck Palahniuk ' s travelogue of Portland , Fugitives and Refugees .