Discussion Post: How are you feeling about the slow start to the offseason?

Both the Timbers and Thorns are off to an... inactive start this winter

The NWSL offseason has been underway for about a month for the Portland Thorns, and the MLS offseason has been underway for over a month for the Portland Timbers. Both clubs face huge winters, with the decisions being made potentially determining the short- and long-term future of both clubs.

But if you were tracking the news out there about either team… you wouldn’t have guessed the gravity of the situation.

Photo Credit: Kelsey Baker

The Thorns’ new General Manager. The Evander saga. High-level signings for the Thorns offense. Any Timbers signings. The fate of the Thorns’ free agents. These are all essential problems looming over the off-seasons for the PTFCs, and neither club has given any definitive signal that they are closer to solving them.

Sure, we have two defender signings for the Thorns and a substantial rumor involving a forward for the Timbers. But neither of those moves are enough for answering the biggest questions facing the club, and so the uncertainty continues to swirl.

That inactivity — regardless of whether it is actual inactivity or not — has steadily raised the anxiety levels of Soccer City. With each day that passes without us knowing who is going to call the shots for the next era of the Thorns, or whether the Timbers’ MVP candidate will even be a Timber next year, our collective stress reaches a new level, and the dread in the back of our skulls creeps just a bit closer.

Is that response warranted? Should we be trying to breathe and focus on something other than soccer while the teams (hopefully) get their work done? I mean yeah, of course. But it’s not that simple with PTFC — we live and die by these clubs, and when the pressure is on we desperately want to see any kind if signal or indication that they will succeed. And the dissatisfaction grows the longer we go without one.

I know that’s where I’m at. With the gravity of the to-do lists each club is facing, the lack of any sort of news or activity coming out about the biggest decisions at this point is causing a creeping sense of concern to build within me. With where we are at in the offseason — again, months into it — the quiet has officially become disconcerting.

But despite my feelings, this blog has always been tied to you: the reader. So, I want to know what you’re going through.

How are the slow starts to the offseasons making you feel? Do you have faith that the decision makers for the Thorns and Timbers are putting in the work to make 2025 better than 2024? Or is the continued radio silence sparking a growing sense of anxiety — the kind usually reserved for playoff games?

Let us know in the comments! Let’s a get a discussion going where we can vent our feelings (respectfully, of course!), get grievances off our chest, and just maybe find a bit of community to help each other through the cold months.