Washington Timbers - some things never change

[Unregistered]

Third field construction began today. Parking garage will not break ground until September 2017. It will be used as a parking in ride for the county. Only a two story.

Futsal facility/clubhouse will be starting February 2018

Keep dreaming. Club is financially insolvent and intellectually bankrupt.

[Unregistered]

I say Washington Timbers Congratulations, Good job and keep it up.

It is amazing. People come on Talking soccer pretending to care about progressing Soccer in the Portland Area. The Washington Timber have their own facility with two great turf field and working on a third. There are no other clubs in the Portland area that can touch that. No club owns a facility.

You may not like the way a certain age group plays or not like a coach at the Washington timbers but you must give them credit for trying to make their club better for its players starting with a facility.

I am not a Washington Timbers parent but I a a little jealous. I wish my club would work to get its own facility.

[Unregistered]

So many crazy things on here. All I can say is they aren't in trouble money wise, they are doing fine. They are indeed starting their 3rd field this month (no clue if it started today or not).

Parking structure? haven't heard that, but their parking lot is on the city agenda to be done. anything past that is stuff they would like to do in the future, but 1 step at a time.

And those who are hating on them, man you really don't care about soccer in this year. You should be happy for them that they have quality fields to play on, and that is helping soccer in the area. If your hating on them then you clearly are worried about losing kids, or else you wouldn't care.

[Unregistered]

I say Washington Timbers Congratulations, Good job and keep it up.

It is amazing. People come on Talking soccer pretending to care about progressing Soccer in the Portland Area. The Washington Timber have their own facility with two great turf field and working on a third. There are no other clubs in the Portland area that can touch that. No club owns a facility.

Including, it would seem, Washington Timbers:

From the Harmony Sports complex's website: https://www.clark.wa.gov/public-work...sports-complex

"This county-owned property is leased to the Harmony Sports Association, which manages operations of the site. The property features multiple youth sports fields, which are used by Cascade Little League and the Washington (formerly VUSA) Timbers."

So while the Washington Timbers essentially get exclusive use of the soccer fields (and CLL gets to use the baseball diamonds), and is helping fund capital improvements to the property, Harmony remains owned by the government of Clark County.

You may not like the way a certain age group plays or not like a coach at the Washington timbers but you must give them credit for trying to make their club better for its players starting with a facility.

I am not a Washington Timbers parent but I a a little jealous. I wish my club would work to get its own facility.

An interesting question--could a competing soccer club (rec or competitive) based in Clark County demand equal access to the facility? A few years ago, there was a brouhaha when Westside Timbers (then Westside Metros) was essentially given exclusive access to THPRD facilities--then THUSC and AUSC (both of which are located within the THPRD boundaries) complained, and now are also given access to THPRD fields? Unlike with Harmony, THPRD operates the fields directly (rather than leasing them to an opco), so the legal status might be different--but parents at Pacific or FCSC might have a beef if their tax dollars are subsidizing the operations of a rival club.

[Unregistered]

Including, it would seem, Washington Timbers:

From the Harmony Sports complex's website: https://www.clark.wa.gov/public-work...sports-complex

"This county-owned property is leased to the Harmony Sports Association, which manages operations of the site. The property features multiple youth sports fields, which are used by Cascade Little League and the Washington (formerly VUSA) Timbers."

So while the Washington Timbers essentially get exclusive use of the soccer fields (and CLL gets to use the baseball diamonds), and is helping fund capital improvements to the property, Harmony remains owned by the government of Clark County.



An interesting question--could a competing soccer club (rec or competitive) based in Clark County demand equal access to the facility? A few years ago, there was a brouhaha when Westside Timbers (then Westside Metros) was essentially given exclusive access to THPRD facilities--then THUSC and AUSC (both of which are located within the THPRD boundaries) complained, and now are also given access to THPRD fields? Unlike with Harmony, THPRD operates the fields directly (rather than leasing them to an opco), so the legal status might be different--but parents at Pacific or FCSC might have a beef if their tax dollars are subsidizing the operations of a rival club.

To answer your question other clubs would not have the same access to the fields. I could get into all the reasons, but they do have a deal in place with the city that allowed them to have that complex as their "home fields" to start with. Plus the fact its not city money that paid for the fields its the clubs money (and grants, ect) that paid for the fields.

Using city money for the parking lot is an interesting question, but at the same time you could ask that question at just about any location that city money is used to update something and it is used primarily by 1 club.

[Unregistered]

To answer your question other clubs would not have the same access to the fields. I could get into all the reasons, but they do have a deal in place with the city that allowed them to have that complex as their "home fields" to start with. Plus the fact its not city money that paid for the fields its the clubs money (and grants, ect) that paid for the fields.

Using city money for the parking lot is an interesting question, but at the same time you could ask that question at just about any location that city money is used to update something and it is used primarily by 1 club.

I suspect that in practice, there won't be any issue--both Pacific and FCSC have ready access to other facilities (Luke Jensen sports park, HB Fuller park, and numerous school facilities), so there isn't the same field crunch that there is in Washington County. (THPRD, to its credit, has been busy building new places to play soccer--the recently just finished re-turfing Field 2 at Walker Road, the Conestoga turf is beautiful, especially if you're not doing 9v9, and more turf fields will open this fall at the new THPRD facility near Mt. View Middle School). When Mountainside HS in Beaverton opens this fall (that's what they are calling the new school at Progress Ridge--and they should be a soccer power right out of the gate, given the number of Copa and Navy kids living within its attendance boundaries), that will add several more fields to the district.

But here in WashCo, the demand for fields (especially for 9v9 turf fields) outstrips the supply.

[Unregistered]

I suspect that in practice, there won't be any issue--both Pacific and FCSC have ready access to other facilities (Luke Jensen sports park, HB Fuller park, and numerous school facilities), so there isn't the same field crunch that there is in Washington County. (THPRD, to its credit, has been busy building new places to play soccer--the recently just finished re-turfing Field 2 at Walker Road, the Conestoga turf is beautiful, especially if you're not doing 9v9, and more turf fields will open this fall at the new THPRD facility near Mt. View Middle School). When Mountainside HS in Beaverton opens this fall (that's what they are calling the new school at Progress Ridge--and they should be a soccer power right out of the gate, given the number of Copa and Navy kids living within its attendance boundaries), that will add several more fields to the district.

But here in WashCo, the demand for fields (especially for 9v9 turf fields) outstrips the supply.

Doing some look into why there shouldn't be an issue is Wa Timbers lease the field from the county along with Cascade little league (they just signed a 30 year lease 2 years ago) so as long as they are leasing those fields they will always have rights to those fields over any other club in the area. Thats also the reason if any other club wants to rent the fields they don't rent them from city of vancouver they rent them directly from WA Timbers and the money goes to WA timbers.

[Unregistered]

Doing some look into why there shouldn't be an issue is Wa Timbers lease the field from the county along with Cascade little league (they just signed a 30 year lease 2 years ago) so as long as they are leasing those fields they will always have rights to those fields over any other club in the area. Thats also the reason if any other club wants to rent the fields they don't rent them from city of vancouver they rent them directly from WA Timbers and the money goes to WA timbers.

Why would they rent from the city when the county owns it?

[Unregistered]

Including, it would seem, Washington Timbers:

From the Harmony Sports complex's website: https://www.clark.wa.gov/public-work...sports-complex

"This county-owned property is leased to the Harmony Sports Association, which manages operations of the site. The property features multiple youth sports fields, which are used by Cascade Little League and the Washington (formerly VUSA) Timbers."

So while the Washington Timbers essentially get exclusive use of the soccer fields (and CLL gets to use the baseball diamonds), and is helping fund capital improvements to the property, Harmony remains owned by the government of Clark County.



An interesting question--could a competing soccer club (rec or competitive) based in Clark County demand equal access to the facility? A few years ago, there was a brouhaha when Westside Timbers (then Westside Metros) was essentially given exclusive access to THPRD facilities--then THUSC and AUSC (both of which are located within the THPRD boundaries) complained, and now are also given access to THPRD fields? Unlike with Harmony, THPRD operates the fields directly (rather than leasing them to an opco), so the legal status might be different--but parents at Pacific or FCSC might have a beef if their tax dollars are subsidizing the operations of a rival club.

The Washington Timbers have 27 years left in their lease of the complex. The County can take the field away but before they do so the county must replace it of equal or greater value. Smart move by someone at the club for drawing that up

[Unregistered]

Why would they rent from the city when the county owns it?

The point is, you don't rent the fields from teh city or county, you rent them directly from the club, because they are leasing the fields so as of right now they "own them". Its the same as if you are leasing an office building. Once your leasing it any business dealings inside it are with you not with the buildings owners.

[Unregistered]

The parking lot is built on a bog. Estimates to properly fix it range as high as $5M. No one will pay that much for that club.

Not to mention, rumors coming out of the last team managers meeting are that the club finances are looking really really shaky. Lot more money going out than is coming in. DoC is spending most of his time working outside the club even though he's on a full time salary deal at WashT. Just a matter of time before it all implodes, again.

Very interesting news!

[Unregistered]

The govt is going to donate all the money for this project so why do you care if we're making America great again with Russian steel? We wouldn't have elected a Russian leader if we didn't love Russia more.

Great so our property taxes will go up!

[Unregistered]

The point is, you don't rent the fields from teh city or county, you rent them directly from the club, because they are leasing the fields so as of right now they "own them". Its the same as if you are leasing an office building. Once your leasing it any business dealings inside it are with you not with the buildings owners.

No the point is the county owns it .

[Unregistered]

No the point is the county owns it .

Yes, the county owns the land. Washington timbers have 27 years left on their lease of the land. Any upgrades or additions are owned by the Washington timbers. The lease states that if the county ever wants to develop the land they must do one of two things: either pay the washington timbers 150% of the value of what they have developed or the county must replace all fields and structures prior to taking over.

Seems like someone knew what they were doing.

It's exciting to know that in the next 24 months that we will see two more phases completed. The third field is starting in the next couple of weeks, the parking lot begins in September, the clubhouse will break ground in early October with 5 futsal courts, workout facility for parents, a pub and retail area. Then the last phase is the fourth turf field that is scheduled to start in august of 2018(this could start earlier depending on how other phases finish)

[Unregistered]

Yes, the county owns the land. Washington timbers have 27 years left on their lease of the land. Any upgrades or additions are owned by the Washington timbers. The lease states that if the county ever wants to develop the land they must do one of two things: either pay the washington timbers 150% of the value of what they have developed or the county must replace all fields and structures prior to taking over.

Seems like someone knew what they were doing.

It's exciting to know that in the next 24 months that we will see two more phases completed. The third field is starting in the next couple of weeks, the parking lot begins in September, the clubhouse will break ground in early October with 5 futsal courts, workout facility for parents, a pub and retail area. Then the last phase is the fourth turf field that is scheduled to start in august of 2018(this could start earlier depending on how other phases finish)

Keep dreaming. Money's flowing out so fast the club can't even stay current with their loan payments today. Add in a completely disengaged leadership group and it all spells disaster real soon.