Oregon Public Broadcasting

The commissioner of Major League Soccer was in Portland Wednesday to gauge how supportive locals might be of a new franchise. Kristian Foden-Vencil reports.

Six cities are courting the league. But commissioner Don Garber says the Timbers stand a good chance because of Portland’s history as Soccer City USA, and the team’s strong ownership group.

But he says PGE Park would have to have seats all around the field – at a cost to the city of about $75 million.

Don Gardner: “We’re not asking for a billion dollar stadium, like many other leagues are. It’s a very narrow focused process that we believe will make sense and we have proven that it has. The best advocates for our stadium projects are the mayors and governors that have done these projects in the past.”

A city task force to look into renovating PGE Park and moving the Beavers minor-league baseball to a new stadium, met for the first time this week.

The soccer league will announce which city gets the franchise in about three months.