By Kurt Schubothe
February 16 2003

PFE the investors who run the Portland Timbers as well as the Portland Beavers baseball team get a new deal to help keep the teams in Portland.     The Timbers received some good news last week as the management group PFE (Portland Family Entertainment) who runs them and the baseball team were able to get a new deal on rent owed to the City and money they owed to their lender, TIAA-CREF, a New York pension fund. All parties in the deal will lose something. The Portland City Council is expected to ok the deal. PFE will disband and a  new group, Metropolitan Sports LLC, would take its place, with the 14-man investor roster pared to Peter Stott, Crown Pacific president and chief executive officer; Scott Thomason, auto dealer; and perhaps several more PFE investors. For the exact amount of money each party lost and agreed to, here is the complete story from The Oregonian. This does not mean that the Timbers are out of the woods but the future does look better. As of now there are 7 players under contract and how much money is budgeted for the rest of the team is not known. This is the problem when a team is run by investors who own a baseball teams too.
    This Thursday we have our monthly Gathering of the Timbers Army and we will be meeting with the General manager of the Timbers. Results of the meeting will posted here on Over the Pond.