adidas Timbers Training Center Nears Completion
The Timbers training center will include a synthetic turf field that will see some public use, as well as a natural grass field to be used exclusively by the club.
It’s been nearly a year since the Portland Timbers announced plans for the adidas Timbers Training Center in Beaverton. With training camp for the team’s sophomore outing just weeks away, it appears as though players and coaches may have to wait just a bit longer before realizing the full potential and all of the amenities the center will eventually provide. The club initially said, perhaps a bit optimistically, that the center might have been completed as early as this past summer. Clearly that didn’t happen, but team owner and president Merritt Paulson says that there have not been any setbacks during the construction and parts of the facility are ready to use now.
“The locker room is basically ready,” Paulson said during an interview with online show Soccer Made In Portland. “TVs and that kind of stuff are just going in, but all the plumbing and lockers and carpeting, ect., are already in, and it’s really nice.”
While two fields will eventually be available (one natural, one synthetic), the for-Timbers-use-only natural-grass surface may be the last piece of the puzzle that gets completed.
“We don’t want to play on the field too much in the really wet weather,” Paulson said. “We really want to make sure that we maintain it well for the long term. Camp starts at the end of January, so I would expect that the field might not be used, at least for hard training, until maybe even as late as April.”
There was no indication of when the synthetic field would be finished, but the staff and players won’t want to train exclusively on turf so there is a chance the squad may need to utilize other grass surfaces at alternate locations much like they did for the duration of the 2011 season.
Paulson also indicated that while the team will spend some time in LA during the pre-season, they will be in Portland for most of February.
