Seattle, Portland play MLS-franchise game

Portland still has a shot to land a Major League Soccer expansion team within five years even if the league awards a new franchise to Seattle first, league officials said Tuesday.

Commissioner Don Garber said in March, when scouting PGE Park as a possible venue for a new franchise, that the MLS most likely would consider adding a team in just one of the two cities by 2010. Portland has a chance at winning one of two open slots to field a team by 2010. Should that not pan out, the city could take home one of two additional franchises the league wants operating by 2011 or 2012.

Reports in the past week indicated the league soon will name Seattle as its next expansion site. League officials denied an agreement has been finalized. But MLS officials said they remain in discussions with an investor group that includes movie studio executive Joe Roth and Adrian Hanauer, managing partner of the Seattle Sounders. The Sounders and Portland Timbers play in a league one notch below the MLS.

 – Excerpt from The Oregonian, October 10, 2007