The three Pacific Northwest MLS teams announced today that away supporters travelling for games between Portland, Seattle and Vancouver will be allowed 500 tickets in each of those cities.
MLS approved the plan for the three clubs, which is an improvement upon the 150 maximum that Seattle was prepared to allocate to its Cascadia rivals next year.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
The main supporters groups for the Cascadia teams - Seattle's ECS, Portland's Timbers Army, and the Southsiders of Vancouver - released a joint statement back in October urging the league and the clubs to consider a larger block of away tickets for matches between the three teams, pointing to traditional football rivalries with large travelling support as a potential catalyst for growing the game in North America.
The main stumbling block seemed to be Seattle owner Joe Roth, who felt that security and "integrity of the home crowd" were cause for concern. It seems as though the league has been able to ease his fears.
Is 500 enough? It's certainly better than 150, but given the proximity between the three teams and the inherent sporting rivalries that already exist there, it's likely that they could easily get travelling fans in the thousands for some Cascadia matches.
Regardless, the league's new policy for the PNW teams is a step forward, as it not only gives those clubs' fans a chance to prove what they've known all along - that the Cascadia three-way rivalry will be special and good for MLS as a whole - but also that it sets a precedent for other MLS clubs to get formal clarification on travelling support.
The US Northeastern teams are seeing a burgeoning travelling culture, and everyone has seen TFC's 2000+ "invasions" of Columbus to kick off the 2008 and 2009 seasons. With Montreal coming into the league (and just about every supporter group in the Eastern Time Zone already looking forward to visiting La Belle Province), the travelling culture in the East will only grow stronger.
But first up is Cascadia. The bar has been set by the league, and now its up to supporters of those teams to meet and exceed those expectations.
To me, it's a slam dunk.