Why yes, that is Jack Barmby of the mighty Portland Timbers rockin’ a Nike SB hat for some reason. It’s not the flopping that soccer critics hate, it’s the posing. This is Portland Timbers related post #6 for those keeping score at home.

Tomorrow is opening day for the Portland Timbers MLS team. This jacket is sold only to members of the 107ist, the official organizing group behind the larger, much looser supporters group known as the Timbers Army. Normally I’d likely pass on posting another Powell Ripper appropriation, but this one manages to tie together 2 of my passions in an unlikely fashion, skateboarding and the Portland Timbers. This is the actually the fourth Timbers post on S&A, none of them gratuitous, including one from before the team was in the MLS. (If you’re keeping track: 1, 2, 3 )

PTFC! RCTID!

Thrasher t-shirt spotted in the stands during yesterday’s broadcast of the Portland Timbers at the San Jose Earthquakes. Soccer! Rodney Wallace!

Last year’s promo must have been a hit, becasue they upped it from the first 2000 to the first 5000 fans in the park who got a free Portland Timbers skateboard. I have to tell you I thought our mayor was a bit looney pushing for a major league soccer team in our town. I hold soccer in about as much entertainment esteem as the Onion does, and I figured it would flop, but boy was I wrong. Games are regularly sold out and the fans are rabid. I heard last year’s board was not really the same size as an actual skateboard, more like a toy hand board. I’m still a little bit confused by this cross promotion. Makes about as much sense as a skateboarder printed on a frisbee, or Air Grip brand flying disk as it were. But damn it all if I don’t want to jump on the bandwagon and go see a game, cause I do. Update: Well this post is pretty funny in retrospect, as 5 years later I am now a huge Timbers nerd. So much so that I actually travelled to Columbus Ohio to watch them win the MLS Cup.

[Photo: Portland Timbers] – Thanks to Greg for the tip.

May 15th was free skateboard day at the PGE park. The first 2000 people to enter the Portland Timbers game vs. St Louis got a free Portland Timbers skateboard. I didn’t even find out about it until now. I’m bummed on a few levels. Bummed I didn’t know about it in advance, bummed I didn’t get a skateboard, and bummed I wasn’t the supplier. 2,000 skateboards is an expensive promotion, even if you were to buy them from China. It would take a company like, Oh , I don’t know, Cold War, a good six years to sell that many decks. I didn’t think it was legit, but it is up on the Portland Timbers Facebook page. The top graphic is the tip off that the designer probably didn’t skate. Anybody know what’s going on with the rumor that Portland might get a Major League Soccer team? Remember the episode of the Simpsons where they joked that it made actually made a town less desirable? Interesting cross sport marketing. I was going to link to a picture of a frisbee with a skateboarder on it, but either I never posted it or I can’t find it.

– Thanks to Greg for the tip.