A Proposal for the Cooperation and Unity of the Portland Sporting Community
It’s a Thursday night in late April and I’m feeling the need to be surrounded by my fellow Portland Sportsmen to scream, cry, and sweat blood for our beloved Blazers tonight as they face elimination against the Houston Rockets. Mike is going to the season opener for the Portland Timbers and Josh (one of the biggest basketball fans I know) has an important futsal game that will cause him to miss the 4th quarter.
How can we allow the most exciting and hopeful Blazer season in the last decade to slip away tonight without the support of those with previous commitments? There should be playoff provisions set in place to postpone other events so all sports fans could rally tonight and support the Blazers. This is not a proposal just for the Blazers and big sports, though — this is about shining a spotlight on each team at the right time, whether it’s PSU men’s basketball in the NCAA Tournament, the Lumberjax if they return to the Champion’s Cup game, or the U of P women in high-stakes soccer matches.
As the City of Portland begins to build new stadiums and facilities, this problem will only escalate. Rather than a powerful core of sportsmen we will be divided into smaller sections. Are there not Blazer fans among the Timbers Army? Or even, for that matter, among the Timber players themselves? Why must a fan of sport be forced to pick which team to support?
In an era of technology and advanced scheduling systems surely we can create something better than this ad-hoc scheduling that doesn’t allow for special conditions like playoff elimination games. It is time for change!
Of course, some overlap must occur because we are a large city with a cornucopia of sports options, but the Committee for United Sports in Portland (C.U.S.P.) will set priorities and certain days will be set aside for special moments. This is a way to focus our collective energy and also to put a spotlight on those sports and teams that are performing exceptionally, but below the radar. I have longed to expand my Portland sports horizon and test the fan waters of things like womens rugby, dragon boat races, or one of the handful of International Basketball League teams that litter the Metro area. CUSP creates the opportunity to weave the smaller sports into a larger, vibrant Portland sports extravaganza.
Portland constantly strives to stay ahead of the curve as a city and now we are presented with an opportunity to put into practice our mantra, “The City That Works.” With cooporation from Merritt Paulson, Paul Lamanto, Paul Allen, Angela Batinovich, and the other sports leaders of Portland we can all come together to maximize the fan potential of Portland. We are truly on the CUSP of becoming the greatest sports town in the world.
And of course, Go Blazers!
Comments
By Mike Merrill on April 30th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Doesn’t Outlook have a meeting room scheduling system built in? Maybe they could just use something like that.
By Gene on May 5th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
If it helps, they played the feed from the Blazers game on the scoreboard during half-time of Thursday night’s Timbers game.