Tag: Merritt Paulson

MLS commissioner Don Garber says no league pressure on Merritt Paulson to sell Portland Timbers

“There was nothing that came out in the report that would have us think any differently”

Merritt Paulson may be under pressure from NWSL fans to sell the Portland Thorns, but MLS is not about to push him to sell the Portland Timbers.

Commissioner Don Garber, answering questions from reporters during his annual State of the League address ahead of MLS Cup, rejected the possibility that MLS could look into urging Paulson to sell his majority stake in the Timbers.

“We at this time don’t see any reason at all for Merritt to sell the Timbers,” said Garber when asked directly about whether the findings of the Yates investigation into misconduct in the NWSL had made MLS reconsider Paulson’s viability as an owner.

Supporters in Portland have been calling on Paulson’s Peregrine Sports, the corporate entity that actually holds his shares of the two clubs, to sell for months. The Yates investigation revealed that on Paulson’s watch, club employees gave positive recommendations for former coach Paul Riley when asked about his past by the North Carolina Courage. The Yates report also stated that Portland had “interfered with our access to relevant witnesses and raised specious legal arguments in an attempt to impede our use of relevant documents.”

The Timbers side of the organization also drew intense criticism for its handling of the domestic abuse allegations against former player Andy Polo, which included re-signing him despite knowing about the charges against him. In that matter, MLS fined Portland for failing to inform the league of the accusations in an expedient fashion.

Last month, Paulson stepped down as the CEO of both the Timbers and Thorns, and left the door open to possibly selling his stakes in the clubs. The organization also fired Gavin Wilkinson and Mike Golub — the presidents of soccer operations and business operations, respectively — in the aftermath of the Yates investigation.

Garber, however, gave a solid endorsement of Paulson’s moves since the news began to break in 2021, indicating that from MLS’s perspective, there is no need to pursue an enforced ownership change.

“Obviously, Merritt has very publicly acknowledged the mistakes that he and the organization has made. You know, he’s taken responsibility for those decisions that he’s made,” said Garber. “I think that the steps that he’s made, in terms of stepping aside and bringing in a new CEO, and the termination of two long-term employees — which we supported — were steps in the right direction. So, there was nothing that came out in the report that would have us think any differently from what I just stated there.”

That’s a stark contrast with other powerful voices. Multiple sponsors announced plans to either reconsider their financial pacts with Portland, or in the case of Alaska Airlines, redirect a quarter’s worth of sponsorship to the NWSLPA’s Support the Players Emergency Trust.

The question of whether Paulson should sell the Thorns was posed at last month’s Oregon gubernatorial debate, and all three participants answered in the affirmative.

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Oregon governor candidates agree: Merritt Paulson should sell the Thorns and Timbers

The embattled owner has managed to produce a consensus across party lines

It’s hard to generate a strong consensus across the political spectrum these days, but Merritt Paulson seems to have done so in Oregon.

Paulson’s name came up during a debate on Wednesday night between Oregon’s three candidates for governor: Republican Christine Drazan, unaffiliated candidate Betsy Johnson and Democrat Tina Kotek.

The moderator asked all three a simple question: Should Paulson sell the Portland Thorns and Portland Timbers?

Each candidate produced an identical, one-word answer: yes.

Paulson has been under fire since the release of the Yates report, which showed among other things how the Thorns organization actually helped Paul Riley obtain another job in the NWSL, despite having been fired after a Thorns investigation into sexual misconduct.

The fallout has already seen two senior executives fired and Paulson step down as CEO of both the Timbers and Thorns.

Though Paulson has hinted at a potential sale, he has stopped short of actually saying he will sell either team at this point.

Whichever candidate becomes the next governor of Oregon will be hoping to see Paulson cut both teams loose.

Watch Oregon’s governor candidates address Paulson

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Merritt Paulson steps down as CEO of Thorns and Timbers, hints at possible sale

The embattled owner took a step back from the clubs, but the chances of a sale are still unknown

Portland Thorns and Timbers owner Merritt Paulson has announced he is stepping down as CEO of both clubs amid the continuing fallout from the Yates investigation.

Paulson hinted at potentially selling the two teams but did not elaborate as pressure continues to grow on the under-fire owner.

The Yates investigation showed the Thorns organization actually helped Paul Riley obtain another job in the NWSL, despite having been fired after a Thorns investigation into sexual misconduct.

The report also showed that under Paulson’s watch, president of business Mike Golub — who has since been fired along with president of soccer Gavin Wilkinson — created “an atmosphere of disrespect and intimidation towards women and working mothers employed at the club over a span of 11 years.”

Though Golub and Wilkinson are gone, fans in Portland have continued to demand Paulson sell the team. The owner released a statement on Tuesday that hinted he may be heading in that direction, while also stepping down as CEO of the NWSL and MLS clubs.

“The Portland Thorns were created to be a beacon of what is possible in women’s sports. A successful team is built on trust, equality and accountability, and today I am holding myself accountable for not doing enough,” Paulson said.

Hinting at a possible sale, he added: “Looking ahead, our organization is at a crossroads, and the future is not necessarily a clear path. No matter what happens, ensuring the long-term health and success of the Portland Thorns is critical to me, as I know it is for our players and the community.

“Given the complexities involved on several levels, finalizing the correct path forward will take time. I love this organization as if it was part of my family, and to me, what is most important is getting it right.”

As fans ponder a boycott of the Thorns’ upcoming playoff game, the team’s star Sophia Smith has urged them to continue showing up at Providence Park.

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Rapinoe: Paulson and Whisler aren’t fit to be NWSL owners

Both owners are under fire for their roles in the Yates report

U.S. women’s national team and OL Reign star Megan Rapinoe has said Portland Thorns owner Merritt Paulson and Chicago Red Stars owner Arnim Whisler are not fit to be in their positions.

Paulson and Whisler have been under fire for their roles in the Yates report, with both owners taking steps back from their positions this week in the fallout from the investigation.

But neither has indicated at this point that they would look to sell their team, with Paulson also the owner of the Portland Timbers of MLS.

Rapinoe, speaking at a press conference ahead of Friday’s friendly against England at Wembley, has said that both Paulson and Whisler should not be part of the NWSL.

“Those people are in positions that have responsibilities and they didn’t fulfill those responsibilities,” Rapinoe said. “They didn’t protect the players at all. I feel like it’s impossible to overstate that every single year, someone said something about multiple coaches in the league and about multiple different environments. So if year after year after year, you cannot perform your duties — I know I wouldn’t be in my position if I couldn’t perform my duties year after year.”

Rapinoe added: “Without accountability and without people specifically who did the wrong thing being gone, that just says to us that nobody’s really hearing us. So obviously, the firings in Portland. We’ll see what happens with the management but I don’t think that Merritt Paulson is fit to be the owner of that team. I don’t think Arnim is fit to be the owner of Chicago. And we need to see those people gone.”

Rapinoe’s words came after her USWNT teammate Becky Sauerbrunn called for the dismissal of “every owner and executive and U.S. Soccer official who has repeatedly failed the players and failed to protect the players.”

On Wednesday, Paulson fired Gavin Wilkinson, the president of soccer for both the Portland Thorns and Portland Timbers, and the organization’s president of business Mike Golub.

Also. on Wednesday, the Chicago Red Stars board voted to oust Whisler from his position as Chairman of the Board.

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Gavin Wilkinson, Mike Golub dismissed as Yates investigation fallout continues at Portland Thorns

Wilkinson and Golub are out as the shake-up around NWSL continues

Soccer in Portland won’t be the same after the Sally Yates investigation.

Gavin Wilkinson, the president of soccer for both the Portland Thorns and Portland Timbers, and the organization’s president of business Mike Golub were both dismissed Wednesday.

In a statement from both clubs, Wilkinson and Golub were “relieved of their duties with both clubs, effective today.” Merritt Paulson, the majority owner for both teams, stepped away from decision-making duties with the Thorns on Tuesday, along with Wilkinson and Golub, but less than 24 hours later, the organization took a further step.

The statement said that the organization’s general counsel Heather Davis — who had been given executive authority over the Thorns in yesterday’s announcement — is now the interim president of Peregrine Sports and will have the final say on business operations for both the Thorns and Timbers.

Karina LeBlanc will continue as the Thorns’ general manager, while Timbers technical director Ned Grabavoy will take charge of the MLS side’s soccer operations.

(Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images)

Amid the tumult of multiple investigations throughout the league, Portland fans have been calling for the ouster of Wilkinson and Golub for some time now. Supporter outrage grew after Wilkinson was reported to have given a positive recommendation of disgraced former coach Paul Riley despite having known of a complaint regarding attempts at sexual coercion and other abuse from ex-Thorns midfielder Mana Shim.

The move comes one day after Thorns and U.S. women’s national team captain Becky Sauerbrunn called for the dismissal of “every owner and executive and U.S. Soccer official who has repeatedly failed the players and failed to protect the players,” including those in Portland. Tuesday also saw Arnim Whisler, the owner of the Chicago Red Stars, relinquish operational control due to his own involvement in the investigation.

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Merritt Paulson temporarily steps away from Portland Thorns decision-making duties

Paulson, Gavin Wilkinson, and Mike Golub are, for now, no longer making Thorns decisions

One day after the deeply troubling revelations in the Sally Yates investigation into abuse and misconduct in the NWSL, Portland Thorns owner Merritt Paulson has temporarily stepped aside from decision-making duties at the club.

In a statement released Tuesday on social media and on the club site, Paulson said that until findings from the joint NWSL/NWSL Players Association investigation are released, he — along with president of soccer Gavin Wilkinson and the club’s president of business operations Mike Golub — will relinquish active control.

“I have told the NWSL that I will be removing myself effective today from all Thorns-related decision making until the joint investigation, which we are fully cooperating with, is released,” read the statement, which was authored by Paulson. “Gavin Wilkinson and Mike Golub will do the same. All Thorns related decisions until that time that any of us would have made will now be handled by Heather Davis, our General Counsel.”

While the Yates report revealed deep-rooted abuse and malfeasance at multiple clubs, its revelations about the Thorns undercut claims that the club had done all that it could in discussing Paul Riley, who had been fired by the Thorns after a complaint from Mana Shim about sexual coercion and retaliatory conduct, with the Western New York Flash.

Riley was fired by Portland following the 2015 season, but the announcement of that move positioned the choice as being mutual and included well-wishes for Riley on Portland’s behalf.

The Flash would go on to hire Riley in 2016, and he would remain in charge of the club when they relocated and became the North Carolina Courage. Riley was only terminated in 2021, after a report in The Athletic detailed years of misconduct.

Portland accused of not cooperating

In particular, the report says that Portland supplied the Flash with a glowing recommendation for Riley, including a comment to “get him if (the Flash) could,” and statements indicating that Wilkinson held Shim responsible for Portland having to dismiss Riley.

The Yates report also hammered Portland for impeding the investigation, citing an open letter Paulson wrote that promised transparency before detailing multiple instances in which investigators felt stymied by the Thorns as an organization.

“The Thorns’ lack of cooperation delayed our investigation,” said the Yates report, detailing a refusal to hand over documents, “specious arguments,” and attempts to either discourage witnesses from speaking to investigators, including the outright refusal of Golub to submit to an interview as issues it ran into while trying to look into the issues in Portland.

Wilkinson was for a time placed on administrative leave, but Thorns players said they “recognized (his) reinstatement” in January 2022, and his role as the club’s president of soccer means that Thorns GM Karina LeBlanc ultimately reports to him. In August, details from an investigation by the law firm DLA Piper said that they found no wrongdoing on Wilkinson’s behalf, though crucially, the law firm’s interview process did not include Shim or another witness.

Paulson and Wilkinson have long been the subject of consistent protests at Thorns and Portland Timbers matches, with banners and chants calling for Paulson to sell and for Wilkinson to be fired. Most recently, 107ist — the umbrella organization for both clubs’ supporters groups — posted a statement on Tuesday demanding that Paulson sell both teams, and that both Wilkinson and Golub be dismissed from their roles.

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Sauerbrunn says owners and execs who failed players ‘need to be gone’

Sauerbrunn did not shy away from calling out her own team’s ownership

Becky Sauerbrunn did not mince words when speaking to the media one day after the release of the Yates report.

“The players are not doing well,” the Portland Thorns and U.S. national team stalwart said on Tuesday. “We are horrified and heartbroken and frustrated and exhausted and really, really angry.”

The report by former U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates detailed “systemic” verbal and emotional abuse and sexual misconduct within the NWSL, as well as numerous authority figures who did not do enough to root out abusive coaches.

Among those figures were the owner and several executives within Sauerbrunn’s own team, the Portland Thorns. The Yates report details, among other ugly revelations, that only months after the Thorns fired their coach Paul Riley following an investigation into alleged sexual harassment, they recommended him for a new job.

The uproar over those revelations led Thorns owner Merritt Paulson, Timbers President of Soccer/GM Gavin Wilkinson (who doesn’t have a role with the Thorns anymore) and Thorns President of Business Mike Golub to temporarily step away from the Thorns on Tuesday.

That likely won’t satisfy many and it appears Sauerbrunn is among that group.

“It’s my opinion that every owner and executive and U.S. Soccer official who has repeatedly failed the players and failed to protect the players, who have hidden behind legalities and have not participated fully in these investigations should be gone,” Sauerbrunn said.

Sauerbrunn on Thorns ownership

Sauerbrunn was later asked to clarify whether she included Thorns ownership and executives in her demand for accountability.

“It includes everyone that has continued to fail the players time and time again, who didn’t take concerns seriously, who didn’t pass on information correctly, who have not participated in investigations — all of them,” she said.

“If people continue to fail the players, and they don’t comply with anything that gets asked of them or gets implemented because of these reports, then they need to be gone gone.”

Thorns ownership has been under fire for some time, with Sauerbrunn’s USWNT teammate Alex Morgan calling the team out last month after a report saying Paulson tried to prevent Riley from getting the USWNT head coaching job in 2019 in order to conceal the reason behind his departure from the Thorns.

Sauerbrunn concluded with her most pointed criticism of her own club’s leadership, calling their actions “abhorrent.”

“All I know is that the team that I play with and the staff, the technical staff and the medical staff — those people are good people,” the defender said.

“But the things that have happened above them in the front office as owners are abhorrent and it cannot continue. The fact that people were abused because things weren’t done well and right is inexcusable.”

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Alex Morgan slams ‘pathetic’ Thorns statement in response to report on Merritt Paulson

The USWNT striker was furious at her former club after new reporting about owner Merritt Paulson

Alex Morgan slammed the Portland Thorns after an ESPN report claimed that owner Merritt Paulson tried to persuade former coach Paul Riley not to pursue the U.S. women’s national team job in 2019.

Riley was terminated for cause as Thorns coach in 2015 after sexual misconduct allegations by the club’s player Mana Shim, but the Thorns did not make that public and instead said Riley’s contract was simply not renewed when it expired.

After Riley got another job coaching the Western New York Flash, which moved and became the North Carolina Courage, Shim’s allegations, along with similar charges made by ex-Thorns player Sinead Farrelly, were finally made public last year in a report in The Athletic.

Riley was quickly fired as Courage head coach.

ESPN’s report on Thursday claimed that in 2019, Paulson told North Carolina Courage owner Steve Malik that it was “a good idea” for Riley to withdraw from consideration for the USWNT job.

Paulson was reportedly concerned that if Riley had applied to coach the USWNT, then the real reason behind his Thorns departure in 2015 would become public.

The Thorns responded to ESPN’s report on Thursday, saying it was “an extremely biased and misleading article.”

That response generated plenty of negative reaction on Twitter including from Morgan, who played for the Thorns in 2015 and whom Shim told about some of Riley’s behavior at the time.

“We (the players of the NWSL, especially players in Portland) deserve so much better than a boys club protecting their own. Also, that statement in response by Thorns FC is just pathetic,” she charged.

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