Portland Timbers owner Merritt Paulson is optimistic about a $50 million plan that would add 4,000 seats to Providence Park.
Paulson told the "Timbers in 30" show that the club have “fully vetted” the plan and that he’s hopeful that they can move forward on it with the City of Portland. The plan would be 100 percent privately funded by the Timbers.
“We have fully vetted a plan,” Paulson said. “We’ve gone through schematics, detailed budgeting and we’ve come up with a plan that I think works.”
The plan calls for the Timbers to add 4,000 seats to the east side of Providence Park, bringing capacity of the downtown stadium to about 25,000. According to comments Paulson made in October, construction would likely be completed over the course of two consecutive offseasons.
“I think it’s important for our stadium to be viable for the foreseeable future,” Paulson said. “We talk about the benefits of being downtown and I think when you look ahead, to really ensure the long-term viability, we do need a bigger stadium and we got to get up around 25,000 seats when you look at the trends in the league. We’re one of the smaller stadiums if you look at the newer stadiums that are being built.”
The Timbers will open the 2017 MLS season on Friday night, when they'll host Minnesota United FC(9:30 pm ET; FS1 in the US, MLS LIVE in Canada).
