Merritt Paulson Talking Infrastructure Investment

In the wake of John Canzano's piece exploring Peregrine Sports, LLC's options for expanding -- or even rebuilding -- Providence Park, a healthy buzz has surrounded the possibilities that he put forward; most notably expanding the east side and south end stands.

Peregrine is the owner of both the Portland Timbers and Portland Thorns, so of course, with 11,000 people on the Timbers' waiting list for season tickets, any possibility of adding more seats is going to generate some excitement.

Now Peregrin owner Merritt Paulson has expanded on Canzano's article in a series of tweets from his personal Twitter account.

To recap: Peregrine is looking at expansion, but does not have any plans in place yet. If Peregrine does put plans in place to expand they will not use public money. In the near term, Peregrine are looking to add more practice fields for the Thorns and youth academy.

While the first two points are vital to our understanding of just where Peregrine is in terms of expanding the stadium, it is the third part about Peregrine's short term goals that we could see results from in the short term.

While in season the Thorns practice on the pitch at Providence Park, making use of the in-stadium locker rooms and facilities. The academy teams, which includes both Timbers and Thorns youth sides, practice on several fields, including the turf pitch at the Timbers' Beaverton training facility.

It is unclear as to whether the organization is looking to expand the footprint of the current training facility, which has reportedly cost Peregrine in the vicinity of $7 million; build elsewhere; or is simply referring to projects already underway like the Delta Park fields, which the Timbers and Thorns put forward the majority of the financing for.

Regardless of how Peregrine approaches this goal, the possibility of further investment in the Thorns and the academy system is one that should have soccer fans in the city excited. The Thorns in particular are already one of the premier women's teams in the United States, if not the world, and further investment in practice facilities for the side would certainly help to cement that standing.