Soccer City, USA (Portland nickname)

The Portland Timbers team in the North American Soccer League (NASL) was so popular that a sign read “SOCCER CITY U.S.A.” in July 1975. The NASL folded in 1984; a team called the Portland Timbers played minor league soccer, but the nickname wasn’t used.
 
A Portland Timbers team entered Major League Soccer in 2010 and the “Soccer City, USA” nickname was once again used for the city of Portland.

   
Wikipedia: Portland Timbers
The Portland Timbers are an American professional soccer club based in Portland, Oregon that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS). The Timbers are the 18th club of Major League Soccer, and replace the USL First Division’s team of the same name, while retaining the same ownership. The MLS club is the fourth Portland team to share the legacy of the Timbers name, which first originated in the old North American Soccer League in 1975.
 
26 July 1975, The Oregonian (Portland, OR), “‘War’ unfolds as Sounders, Timbers battle” by John Polis, pg. C1, col. 1:
“Tomorrow, we’ll really be able to call Portland ‘Soccer City,’” Paul said.
(Don Paul, general manager of the Portland Timbers—ed.)
 
28 July 1975, The Oregonian (Portland, OR), pg. C1, col. 1 photo caption:
LOOKING FOR AN EDGE—Portland Thunder quarterback Don Horn looks over the Philadelphia Bell defense as he calls a play at the line of scrimmage. Horn compelted 17 of 34 passes in the game Sunday but the Bell used four big plays to take a 30-21 victory before 5,076 spectators at Civic Stadium. The game was the last exhibition encounter in the World Football League this season.
(A large sign reads “SOCCER CITY U.S.A.”—ed.)
 
31 July 1975, Seattle (WA) Times, ‘The Sporting Thing” by Georg N. Meyers, pg. E1, col. 1:
The 1-per centers in
Soccer City U.S.A.
THE MOST REVEALING sports photograph of the year may be the one that appeared in The Portland Oregonian the day after the first exhibition game of the second season of the World Football League there.
 
It showed Don Horn, quarterback for the Portland Thunder, scanning the defense of the Philadelphia Bell as he prepared to call a play.
 
Over the quarterback’s helmet, reflecting the rays of the late-afternoon sun, was a huge sign, reading:
 
“SOCCER CITY U.S.A.”
 
That was the day after 27,310 fans crammed venerable Civic Stadium to watch Peter Withe score two goals for the Portland Timbers in a 2-1 victory over the Seattle Sounders.
 
In the same stadium the next day, 5,076 fans showed up for the season’s first home football game of the Portland Thunder against the Philadelphia Bell.
 
18 August 1975, The Oregonian (Portland, OR), pg. C1, col. 5:
Soccer City, USA
Portland excites crowd of 33,503
By Bob McEwen
They were singin’ in the rain Sunday afternoon.
 
From rooftop to rooftop, the shouts and cries of 33,503 Portland Timber fanatics saluted the latest installment of the continuing saga of Soccer City, USA.
 
Google News Archive
6 June 1976, Palm Beach (FL) Post-Times, “Channel 4 Features Soccer,” TV13, col. 1:
On the other hand, the Timbers are a comparatively new team and are just beginning their second season in the NASL. Portland, commonly called “City of Roses,” gained a new nickname during the summer of 1975, “Soccer City, U.S.A.,” because of the rapid growth the sport has enjoyed in that city.
   
15 August 1976, Cumberland (MD) Sunday Times, pg. 42, col. 4:
Crowe’s Soccer
Coaching Days
in Portland End
PORTLAND (UPI)—Vic Crowe, who made Portland “Soccer City, U.S.A.” in his first year as coach of the Portland Timbers of the North American Soccer League, wound up his second season and his coaching career Saturday night.
 
The popular Englishman is returning to his homeland to devote his time to his printing business and his family.
 
Sounder at Heart (Seattle Sounders)
“Soccer City USA” has still, oddly, never won a title in soccer
Portland was knocked out of the Div II playoffs this weekend by Vancouver, who’d have a better claim to ‘Soccer City USA’ despite not being in the USA.
over 1 year ago sidereal
COMMENTS
I almost broke my mousepad trying to rec this so much :( :( :(
by Robert on Oct 11, 2010 11:23 AM PDT  
 
Even when the Timbers win they still manage to find a way to lose.
by Robert on Oct 11, 2010 11:24 AM PDT  
     
New York (NY) Times
M.L.S. Finding New Center in Pacific Northwest
By JACK BELL
Published: March 14, 2011
The rebirth of a regional rivalry in the Pacific Northwest has shifted Major League Soccer’s center of attention, and gravity, to the west.
(...)
In Portland, the self-proclaimed Soccer City U.S.A., the game never really went away when the N.A.S.L. folded after its 1984 season. The Timbers stayed alive in minor leagues, and a former player, Clive Charles, built powerful men’s and women’s programs at the University of Portland, producing players like Kasey Keller and Tiffeny Milbrett.
   
New York (NY) Times
36 Hours in Portland, Ore.
By FREDA MOON
Published: August 25, 2011
WITH its celebrated bike culture and obsession with all things independent and artisan, Portland is a small-scale metropolis with an outsize cultural footprint. Spread across the twin banks of the Willamette River, this provincial hub of the Pacific Northwest has more than its share of natural beauty and an earnest, outdoorsy reputation. But in recent years, the city has emerged as the capital of West Coast urban cool, earning it a television series, IFC’s “Portlandia,” devoted to satirizing its aesthetic and progressive social bent. Indeed, Portland — whose nicknames include Beervana and Soccer City, USA — is easy to poke fun at. It’s also hard to resist.
 
MLSsoccer.com
Revs’ Cochrane: Portland is “best soccer market” in USA
September 16, 2011
Kyle McCarthy
PORTLAND, Ore. – JELD-WEN Field looks just a little bit different from the days when New England defender Ryan Cochrane used to practice here regularly.
(...)
The early returns provide plenty of evidence – though, as several fan bases around the league would suggest, not a conclusive amount – to buttress Cochrane’s assertion that his hometown deserves its “Soccer City USA” moniker.
 
“I’m excited for the area,” Cochrane said. “Anybody who doesn’t think that Portland is the best soccer market in the country is a little bit delusional or they haven’t been here. I’m excited for the franchise and for the Timbers to finally get a MLS team.”
   
(Trademark)
Word Mark SOCCER CITY USA
Goods and Services (ABANDONED) IC 035. US 100 101 102. G & S: Administration of community recreational sports leagues; Advertising services, namely, promoting and marketing the goods and services of others in the field of upscale choices such as cultural events, restaurants, shopping, and travel via print and electronic media; Advertising, including promotion of products and services of third parties through sponsoring arrangements and license agreements relating to international sports’ events; Arranging and conducting marketing promotional events for others; Arranging personal appearances by persons working in the field of film, music, television, entertainment or sport; Business management consulting in the field of team development; Coordination of recreational sporting opportunities for individuals who wish to participate in team league sports; Corporate event management services; Promoting sports competitions and/or events of others; Promoting the goods and services of others by arranging for sponsors to affiliate their goods and services with an awards program, a sports competition and sporting activities; Promoting the goods and services of others by arranging for sponsors to affiliate their goods and services with soccer competitions; Promoting the interests of people involved and concerned with youth sports; Providing on-line registration services for soccer events, camps, and clinics
(ABANDONED) IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: Arranging for ticket reservations for shows and other entertainment events; Encouraging amateur sports and physical education by organizing, sanctioning, conducting, regulating and governing amateur athletic programs and activities; Entertainment in the nature of soccer games; Entertainment services, namely, participation in soccer events in the nature of soccer competition and soccer tournaments; Operation of sports camps; Organization of sports competitions; Organizing community festivals featuring a variety of activities, namely, sporting events, art exhibitions, flea markets, ethnic dances and the like; Organizing community sporting and cultural events; Organizing exhibitions for soccer games, events, and clinics, all for entertainment purposes; Organizing live exhibitions and conferences in the fields of education, culture, sports and entertainment for non-business and non-commercial purposes; Organizing sporting events, namely, soccer events in the nature of soccer competition and soccer tournaments; Providing a web site featuring sporting information; Providing news and information in the field of sports; Provision of information relating to sports and sporting events; Sport camps
Standard Characters Claimed
Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK
Serial Number 77800858
Filing Date August 10, 2009
Current Basis 1B
Original Filing Basis 1B
Owner (APPLICANT) Peregrine Sports DBA Peregrine Sports LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY OREGON 1844 SW Morrison Street Portland OREGON 97205
Disclaimer NO CLAIM IS MADE TO THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO USE “SOCCER” OR “USA” APART FROM THE MARK AS SHOWN
Type of Mark SERVICE MARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator DEAD
Abandonment Date August 30, 2011