Canzano: Football team working to get back home
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Portland State was systematically squeezed out of Providence Park — its long-time home football stadium in the city's heart.
The last game the Vikings played there was in 2018 — a 35-14 win over Northern Colorado. Administrators and coaches on the Park Blocks have vented about how Peregrine Sports LLC, the parent company of the Timbers, pushed them out.
PSU coach Bruce Barnum told me once: “We kept paying the money. It went up and up and up and up.”
The Vikings were told they couldn’t use the visiting locker room. Or store football equipment at the stadium the night before the game. Former Athletic Director Val Cleary told me in 2022: “The logistics became a nightmare.”
Portland State President Ann Cudd hinted on Monday that “we might be in the news this year.” She’s got an athletic director hire to make. But I followed up on her comment and Cudd offered: “We’re trying to bring a game a year to Providence Park. It will be on us to fill the stadium, get the right opponent, get our fans there. I hope we can do it. Certainly, our football team will be over the moon about that.”
Is that the news?
“I don’t want to jinx it but we are in active conversations about that.”
The Vikings currently play their home games 13 miles from campus at Hillsboro Stadium. It has seating for 7,600 and PSU doesn’t typically sell it out. That last game the Viks played at Providence Park in 2018 drew only 4,375 fans. So the key here is finding an opponent or promotion that will help fill the 30,000-seat downtown Portland venue.
How about a game against Oregon State or even Washington State? Split the gate? Allow the Beavers or Cougars to generate a little revenue, showcase in Oregon’s largest market, and position the matchup as a very winnable early-season, non-conference road game? Just thinking out loud here.
The Beavers and Vikings are contracted to play in 2027 in Corvallis. I wonder if Oregon State — which currently has some unusual scheduling flexibility — would be into a game with Portland State at Providence Park.
A couple of things:
I find Cudd’s act refreshing. She’s the first PSU president in two decades who seems interested in sports. She understands how athletics can help with marketing, branding, and building community on her campus. That she’s willing to talk openly about being in “active conversations” is new.
Playing one PSU football game a year in the old stadium will help the football program. Maybe it will lead to two games per season, then three, and four. If so, the Vikings are going to have to draw more than 4,700 fans or risk embarrassment. As one involved person said, “You draw 4,000 in a 30,000-seat stadium and it looks and sounds like a bunch of coins bouncing around in a tin can.” It’s going to take a solid bit of strategy to make this a success.
The city-owned venue has previously played host to acts such as Elvis, Jimmy Buffett, Johnny Cash, The Beach Boys, and Rev. Billy Graham. The stadium also hosted seven Civil War football games and a handful of sold-out Oregon-Washington games.
As one jokester on social media offered: “They should just play the Foo Fighters.”
• BIG TEN TRAVEL TIPS: I received a terrific question in the Monday Mailbag about travel to Big Ten football games. An Oregon-based reader wanted to know which Big Ten outpost was the most difficult one to get to from Portland. I suggested that getting to Iowa — with very limited direct flights — might be a challenge. But I don’t mind connecting flights and it’s not that difficult to go through Chicago or Minneapolis.
There’s a number of Big Ten schools (Purdue, Indiana, Illinois, etc.) that will require a flight, then the potential of a 60-90-minute drive. But the correct answer to the most tasking travel destination is definitely Penn State.
I reached out to my pal Brian Kappel, an Oregon-based Nittany Lions grad who often goes back to games there. He gave some travel advice that started with: “Book early.”
Hotels book rooms one year out and there’s a two-night minimum. It will cost you $800-a-night or more to be downtown. Kappel says if you plan on staying further away, it can still be spendy.
“Houses go quick, research, set a budget and your expectations,” he said. Also, be sure to note when single-game tickets go on sale. He advises fans to get a Ticketmaster account ahead of time, log in early, and cross their fingers. The stadium holds 107,000, but the tickets go fast.
Kappel is a terrific ambassador. For flights, he said: “Realize that you are about three hours from everything — NYC, Philly, DC, Pittsburgh — make it a trip, see some sights. Central Pennsylvania is gorgeous, especially in the fall, take it in, then dig into football.”
Oh, and our Big Ten travel guide added: “Tailgating is huge, but for former Pac-12 folks, don’t go back to your tailgate at halftime, it is not a common practice, and you likely will miss the second half if you leave.”
• KIND GESTURE: Arizona State football coach Kenny Dillingham and a booster paid the funeral expenses of a Utah State football player who drowned last month. Andrew Seldon Jr. — the step-brother of ASU safety Myles Rowser — dove from the cliffs of a reservoir in northern Utah and didn’t surface.
As SunDevilSource.com’s Chris Karpman noted: “What a great gesture.”
Dillingham is a good dude.
• RING OF HONOR: Rice-Eccles Stadium already has a lot of tradition, but it’s getting a new one — the “Utah Football Ring of Honor.” Former quarterback Alex Smith will be the first inductee.
The inductees must already be members of the Crimson Club Hall of Fame, have graduated from a four-year institution, or attended Utah for at least three years. They must also meet at least one of the required criteria: owning school records, being a consensus All-American, playing 10 or more years in the NFL, coaching a team to at least two conference championships, among others.
• NIX WATCH: Immediately after the NFL Draft, Denver rookie Bo Nix was listed by DraftKings as a 16-to-1 shot to win the NFL Rookie Offensive Player of the Year award. Caleb Williams of the Bears was 2-to-1.
I don’t know if you saw Nix’s performance (8-of-9 passing for 80 yards and a TD pass) in the Broncos preseason game, but he’s not looking like a bad bet. Williams has more talent around him in Chicago, but Nix, 24, looks sharp and calm in Sean Payton’s system. Denver opens the regular season at Seattle on Sept. 8.
• HEAT CHECK: Cal’s football team is spending the early part of this week practicing in the heat. The Bears are holding their Monday-Tuesday practices at Jesuit High School in the Sacramento suburbs.
Cal plays road games at Auburn (Sept. 7) and Florida State (Sept. 21). It’s trying to get some warm-weather work that it can’t get in Berkeley. The expected high temperature in the Sacramento area on Tuesday is 93 degrees.
That aside, I have Cal’s Oct. 5 game vs. Miami circled on my calendar. The Hurricanes visit Cal that day. (I wonder if they’ll prepare by practicing in cooler weather.) Mario Cristobal’s last visit to Memorial Stadium came in 2020, when Oregon lost to Cal 21-17.
• QUESTIONS: This week’s “Canzano & Wilner: The Podcast” episode is devoted to listener questions. Got one? Drop it in the comment section. We’re available everywhere you find podcasts and the video episodes are now on YouTube.
• HOOPING: Stanford released its non-conference men’s basketball schedule on Monday. Kyle Smith is a terrific coach. He’s going to win there. The Cardinal will close the non-conference schedule on Dec. 21 in a game against former Pac-12 foe Oregon.
The non-conference slate:
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John,
Public service announcement: I suffered a stroke a week ago. Got lucky. My wife picked up on what was happening. Called the ambulance and thanks to great professionals along the way got the care I required, was back home a day later. Folks, know the signs of a stroke, even if you are wrong , you will be right.
PSU deserves a fair shake. I’m not informed enough to know this, but isn’t the stadium a municipal facility. If so, then find an advocate or two on the city council and get the Vikings a place at the table. Admittedly, I could care less about soccer. It would appear with the WNBA on the rise soccer will be relegated to sixth place in America’s sport hierarchy!
I think a PSU game a season could work well at Providence Park with the right marketing and opponent. The first goal of PSU should be to sell all the lower sections first, then sell the uppers, just to make it feel like a more cohesive crowd.
I still think PSU and Portland Schools really missed out with not building a stadium together during the Lincoln HS rebuild…