Everything you need to know about attending the new Providence Park

It’s really happening. After what feels like an eternity away, the new Providence Park is opening this weekend.

Here at Stumptown Footy, we’re as excited as you are to experience top level soccer in the new stadium, so we’ve done our best to gather all the information you’ll need for this weekend’s Timbers and Thorns home openers.

Starlight Parade

It’s not directly related to the new stadium, but a big logistical point for Saturday night is that the Starlight Run and Parade will be going on at the same time as the match. As such, streets will be closed both downtown and near the stadium, and parking lots near the stadium will be affected as well. The club is encouraging fans to take transit, bike, or walk to the stadium if at all possible. Additionally, plan on arriving early (yes, even earlier than you normally do) to avoid delays.

One benefit, however, is that any fans who attend City Fair after the match on June 1 will get free admission, which is kind of neat. You can get more comprehensive info about the Starlight Parade from the club here.

Gates

The first thing you’ll notice is that all of the gates have new names (letters now instead of numbers) and there are additional gates on the east side of the stadium.

Courtesy of the Portland Timbers and Thorns

Make sure you know which gate is best for you to go through ahead of time to make your line culture experience much more enjoyable.

Ticketing

With the addition of SeatGeek as the official ticketing partner of the club, all tickets will now be primarily digital and scanned off your device at your point of entry. You can read more about that process here.

Concessions

Concessions have been overhauled at Providence Park, with the stadium now offering 19 new dining destinations featuring a number of local partners. You can read more about our concessions impressions in our food/player pairing article.

Additionally, prices have remained frozen and will be cheap on weeknight games during which “Park Pricing” will be in affect. You can read more about concessions pricing in our news article.

Amenities

A number of amenities have either been added or upgraded. First off, ten charging stations have been added to the concourse where you can plug your phone in to get some of that sweet, sweet, battery life. I gave them a look on Wednesday and they have cords for Apple and Android (both micro USB and USB C) devices.

Similarly, drinking fountains and water stations have been added, up to a total of nine in the stadium. More TVs/Displays have been added to the concourse as well, with about 100 new ones for fans to watch while they’re waiting in line for concessions or restrooms. And my favorite little touch is the addition of closed captioning to all PA announcements, which will be visible on the big screen.

Transit

A couple changes have been made to the ways fans can get to the stadium. For one, there are now three designated rideshare (Lyft/Uber) pick-up/drop-off points:

• On SW Alder St. at the corner of SW Alder and SW 18th Ave. in front of Scrap PDX
• On SW 21st Ave. near Levine’s Cleaners, heading north towards Burnside
• On SW Salmon St. heading east next to Lincoln High School near the intersection of 16th Ave. (This location will not be in operation on June 1 due to the Rose Festival Starlight Parade.)

On TriMet’s side, Bus 24 has been altered to take fans directly to Providence Park from Northeast Portland (see more route info), and there will be additional MAX service to and from the stadium on match days. On Saturday, due to the parade, Bus 15 (Belmont) eastbound will only be picking up at 20th & Burnside post-match, and Bus 20 (Burnside) eastbound will pick up at 20th and 15th.

Any questions? Feel free to ask in the comments, or point out if we missed anything you think is important!