Authors name: Eric Fowler

Location: Arcata, California

Title of essay: Marketing Neolocalism in Portland Timbers Fandom and Craft Beer;
Culture Expression and Social Identity Construction in Soccer City, USA
Abstract:
The popularity of soccer is irrefutably international. Though in this sport's
diffusion, a certain failure to pervade has seemingly arisen in the hindered
growth of soccer fandom within the United States. One exception to this
assertion presents itself in the form of the always fiery and generally beerenthused supporter group of the Portland Timbers Football Club (PTFC). As
dually Portland-beloved counterparts constituent of what is deemed a PTFCoriented craft beer industry, the formidable sociocultural presence of PTFC and
craft beer within Portland is uncovered in the following to be driven by
Portlanders neolocalist tendencies. Highlighting neolocalism as a cause of
fervent PTFC soccer/craft beer consumption in Portland, it is argued that a
PTFC-oriented craft beer industry derives in-city popularity from locals
rejection of (1) sports that are traditionally more popular on a national scale and
(2) the homogeneity of larger corporate beer brands representative of a more
national culture.
University affiliation: Humboldt State University
Contact information:
Email: ehf9@humboldt.edu
Phone: 503-957-5842
Address: 1092 10th street. Arcata, CA. 95521

Eric Fowler
Marketing Neolocalism in Portland Timbers Fandom and Craft Beer;
Culture Expression and Social Identity Construction in Soccer City, USA
INTRODUCTION
In a contemporary era marked by cross-cultural interconnectedness and globalization, the
England-bred sport of soccer is irrefutably widespread in its international reach. Though in this
global games diffusion (and subsequent submersion into the lives of millions of people across
the world), a certain failure to pervade has seemingly arisen in the hindered growth of soccer
fandom within the United States. Mired in the face of a countrywide consumption and
commodification of such traditionally culturally engrained sports as baseball (also known as
Americas pastime) or football (also known as American football, contrasting soccers alternate
title of association football), soccers expansion within the United States has historically been
lethargic and weak (Rasmussen 1995; Wagner 2012). That said, exceptions to this assertion
certainly exist. One soccer-centric deviation from the stated American sports scene norm herein
presents itself in the form of the always fiery and generally beer-enthused supporter group of the
Portland Timbers Football Club (PTFC). Contributing to the economic success of Portlands
artisan economy, this general enthusiasm amongst PTFC fans for beer consumption is evidenced
in an encouraged by the ample array of collaborations occurring between the PTFC organization
and the Portland-area craft beer industry.
Possessing the most microbreweries per square capita in the world and deemed Soccer
City, USA in the 1970s during an era of fervent football fandom attributed to the participation
of the Timbers in a now-defunct NASL (North American Soccer League), Portland can
justifiably claim leadership in the mounting popularity of both the sport of soccer and the
industry of craft beer production within the United States (Heying 2010, Orr 2011). Against the

backdrop of Portlands media and academia-enforced reputation for being a site of hipsterism
and weirdness (associated often with the prevailing citywide mantra of Keep Portland
Weird), the following study asserts that the rise of PTFC soccer and the local craft beer
industryas dually Portland-beloved counterparts of a PTFC-oriented craft beer industryis
largely attributed to fans neolocalist tendencies (Brown 2013; Peterson 2012).
Coined by cultural geographer James Shortridge in 1996, the concept of neolocalism
applied in the research refers to a movement amongst people to reject national, or even regional,
culture in furtherance of restoring the perceived distinctiveness of uniquely local experiences
(Flack 1997, 38-49). Pointing to craft beer itself as a tool of local identity, Schnell and Reese
(2003) convey that the often proudly and self-consciously local microbreweries purposefully
cater to consumers neolocalist impulses via targeted marketing strategies that display features of
a places personality (45-47). Along this line, soccer has also been viewed as a vehicle for the
construction of collective identities and social relationships in supporter groups within a large
body of extant literature focused on the convergence of sports and identity (eg. BernacheAssollant et al. 2011; Bairner and Shirlow 2001; Goldblatt 2006; Wagner 2012). The
implications held by this soccer/identity nexus is perhaps best articulated by Goldblatt in the
following excerpt from his 2006 Global History of Soccer writing:
In football the crowd is unquestionably the chorus, not only supplying ambience,
commentary and income, but actively shaping the tone and the course of the
gameThe opportunity that this provides for the collective dramatization of identities
and social relationships, both spontaneous and organized, is without parallel in the
field of global popular culture. (903)
Amidst residents general affinity for all things independent and artisan, a
PTFC-oriented craft beer industry implements a number of marketing strategies that
serve to emphasize local identity and distinctiveness (Moon 2013, 1). In flaunting the

place personality of Soccer City, collaborations between PTFC and craft beer to be
evaluated in the ensuing research range from Timbers-themed beers and Timbersaffiliated homebrewing competitions, to game-day viewing parties, tastings, and draft
brew debuts at local bars/breweries/brewpubs.
Given its widely perceived soccer-centricity, considerably sized PTFC fan base,
and buoyant local craft beer industry, the Portland Soccer City offers the forthcoming
investigation an especially robust area for an examination of place-based collective social
identity constructions to occur. The purpose of this research is to therefore innumerate
and evaluate how the PTFC organization applies neolocalism as a direct and indirect
vehicle for Portlands soccer supporters to construct a social identity and express their
culture in consonance with the thriving local craft beer industry. With a focus narrowed
to PTFCs Major League Soccer (MLS) existence spanned from 2010 to present, this
purpose is carried out through an examination of the PTFC supporter scene as a context
in which a PTFC-oriented craft beer industry aimed specifically at satisfying
needs/tastes/desires of PTFC supporters communicates local social identity and culture
via targeted marketing strategies fostering neolocalism. In this aim, the following
research questions area answered. First, how does the PTFC organization and its
supporter network incorporate the local craft beer industry to express Portlands
unique culture (per its stated hip and creative reputation and extensive artisan
economy)? Second, as an expression of this unique Portland culture, how does the
cultivated PTFC-oriented craft beer industry draw on neolocalism to influence
supporters social identities? 1
METHODS
To evaluate the stated research questions, the investigation employed three methods amid

a qualitative-oriented approach. First, a broad industry analysis of Portlands deemed PTFCoriented craft beer is applied that draws upon a methodological framework outlined in prior
industry analyses (eg. Choi 1995; Clemons 2006; Robbins and Sharp 2003; Sorenson 2005). This
portion of the investigation takes into account the PTFC-oriented craft beer industrys
geographic area, products, target customers, company facts and figures, and its size,
trends, and outlook (SBTDC 2012, 1-2).
The second method employed within this investigation is a textual analysis of the bottle
of Cascade Brewing Companys Portland Ale to examine the place-based imagery that is used
by this PTFC-themed craft beer in its label. A textual analysis is also applied to promotional
items of the Portland Timbers Pub Partners exclusivity program (which facilitates partnerships
with local Portland pubs/brewpubs/restaurants/breweries within the Portland-area via viewing
parties). The specific aim of textual analyses employed in this study is to explore the conscious
ways that craft beer establishments foster neolocalism as an effective marketing ploy that is used,
in the words of Schnell and Reese (2003), to engender strong pulls of hometown loyalty (48).
As the third and perhaps most revealing portion of this researchs analytical advance, surveys
geared towards gauging PTFC fans attitudes regarding soccer fandom and craft beer were
conducted during two 2013 regular-season matches on October 6th and October 13th (see Figure 1
for survey questions). Participants were recruited via purposive and snowball sampling during
Timbers viewing parties 2. Regarding location, surveys were conducted at
brewpubs/bars/restaurants affiliated officially with the club via the Portland Timbers Pub
Partners program (see Figure 2) and at establishments that, although unaffiliated with the Pub
Partners program, are perceived within the PTFC fan network to be soccer-centric (Curwen
2013). Surveying took place at the following locales: Kells Brewpub, Thirsty Lion Pub, and

Marathon Taverna (Pub Partners establishments) and the 4-4-2 bar, Cheerful Bullpen, and Pizza
Schmizza Brewpub (non-Pub Partners establishments). Additionally, to be qualified for the
survey, persons had to meet criteria per 1) whether they are fans of the Portland Timbers and 2)
whether they considered themselves to be Portlanders in current residency.

Figure 1. PTFC fan survey questions

Age: __________________
Gender : ______________ Occupation: ________________

Country of Origin: __________________ Race/Ethnicity: ________________

1) Do you consider yourself to be a Timbers fan?
[Yes] [No]
2) Would you consider yourself a Portlander?
[Yes] [No]
3) The presence of the Timbers club helps Keep Portland Weird.
[Strongly Agree] [Agree] [Undecided] [Disagree] [Strongly Disagree]
4) Do the Timbers make you proud of Portland?
[Strongly Agree] [Agree] [Undecided] [Disagree] [Strongly Disagree]
5) Is craft beer important to Timbers fan culture?
[Yes] [No]
6) Are you likely to purchase local beer over national beer (eg; PBR, Coors)?
[Yes]

[No]

7) Have you consumed Timbers-themed beer before (Widmers PTFC-edition Drifter Pale Ale, Cascade Brewings Portland Ale,
Laurelwoods Hooligan Brown, Lompoc's Kick Axe, etc.)?
[Yes] [No]
8) Would you like to see your favorite local brewery expand and sell nationally?
[Yes] [No] [Indifferent]
9) Would you purchase your favorite craft beer as often if it were bought out by a larger national brewery (ie; PBR, Coors)?
[Yes]
[Maybe] [No]
10) a. How favorably would you react to your favorite local beer running a commercial during the MLS Cup Championship?
[Very] [Somewhat] [Indifferent] [A Little] [Not at All]
b How favorably would you react to your favorite local beer running a commercial during the Super Bowl?
[Very] [Somewhat] [Indifferent] [A Little] [Not at All]
11) In one word, how would you characterize the Portland Timbers supporter culture?

12) What is your favorite brand of craft beer?

Figure 2. PTFC Pub Partners program

flier

(Courtesy of Portland Timbers Organization 2013)

BACKGROUND
Craft Beer, Portland Timbers Soccer
As the American Brewers Association (2012) indicates in its definition of craft beer,
American craft breweries are small, independent, and traditional and maintain integrity by
what they brew and their general independence, free from a substantial interest by a non-craft
brewer. Seen to employ a generally individualistic and distinctive approach in order to connect
with their customer base, craft breweries tend to be highly involved with their surrounding local
community (via philanthropy, volunteerism, sponsorship of events, sports teams, etc.) and often
take pride in not only the ingredients used to make their beer but also in the equipment used to
produce it (ABA 2012; Heying 2010).
Within a postmodernist United States wherein interconnectedness/mobility/technology
has heightened dramatically since the early 1970s, the craft beer industry offers consumers a
microbrewed reprieve from the macrobrewed homogeneity put forth by such national chains as
Miller, Coors, or Budweiser by catering purposefully to the general publics increasingly active
attempts to find uniqueness and create new senses of place, new connections with the places
they live, and new locally-based economies(Harvey 1989, vii; Schnell 2004, 46-47)2. Thus
contrasting the marketing and production techniques of said national breweries that have taken
over retailing in every realm and crushed local businesses, the craft beer industry in whole has
undergone hyperactive expansion amid its West Coast-aligned resurgence in the early 1980s
(Flack 1997, 42; Schnell 2006, 46). Referred to by Flack (1997) as leaders of this West Coast
microbrewery rebirth (which was partially driven by the idea that a fresh local microbrew seems
to fit very nicely with the strong environmental sentiment shared by many West Coasters),
the states of Washington, Oregon, and California are particularly strong exemplifiers of this craft

beer industry growth in their respectively massive numbers of implanted

brewpubs/microbreweries (43-44).
Located within the confines of one of these leader states, Portland serves as the focus
of the ensuing study in an evaluation of this citys local craft beer industry. With twelve percent
of the annual beer consumed in Oregon being craft brewed (a stat coming in at three times the
national average) and more than 70 brewpubs/microbreweries in its metropolitan area (the largest
per capita concentration of such establishments in the world), Portland has established a foothold
in a US beer market where four major brewing companiesAnheuser-Busch Miller, Coors,
Pabst Brewing Company, D. G. Yuengling and Son Incmaintain control over ninety-five
percent of the market (Heying 2010, 17). This small-scale and innovation-minded craft beer
industry is viewed within extant literature as an important facet of Portlands designated artisan
economy alongside, for instance, the citys artisan-oriented food, cycling, and clothing
industries (Heying 2010).
In the same sense that the city can justifiably claim leadership in the deemed
microbrew/craft beer renaissance, Portlands rise to prominence as a catalyst for the sport of
soccer in the US is quite evident (Belson 2011; Heying 2010, 16-17). Self-proclaimed as Soccer
City, USA amid a 1970s era of feverish football fandom during the Timbers participation in the
now-defunct NASL, Portland has built on a rich in-city history of soccer in the span of its MLS
(Major League Soccer) existence (Orr 2011). Referred to by commissioner Don Garber as a
cauldron of energy for American soccer, the citys maverick role as a promoter of this global
game on a United States-specific scale is sufficiently expressed by Belson (2011) in his New
York Times review of the Timbers 2010 inaugural season in the MLS:
So maybe the spirit of American soccer fandom has not attained the open
hostility that pervades the sport in much of the world. But what is playing out in

Portland, where the Timbers are the hottest ticket in town in their inaugural
season in Major League Soccer and passionate fans are embracing some of the
trappings of their European counterparts, suggests that soccer might finally be
poised to become a big-league sport in the United States.
Neolocalism, Identity
This investigation argues that Portland residents passionate approval, consumption, and
altogether embrace of craft beer and Timbers soccer derive from a tendency to gravitate towards
experiences, products, or services that appeal to their neolocalist desire to restore uniquely local
experiences and break away from the homogeneity of popular, national culture (Schnell 2003,
46). As noted earlier, this concept of neolocalism was popularized by geographer Wes Flack
(1997) in his seminal research on the role of Americans sense of place cravings as a catalyst
for a 1982-1997 proliferation of microbreweries in the United States (37).
A number of scholarly works point to craft beer as an expression of local identity (eg.
Enkerli 2006; Murray 2012; Schnell 2003). As a culture and an industry, craft beer
production/consumption serves as an effective stage for the negotiation of different
dimensions of cultural identity in its purposeful adherence and catering to the often neolocalist
impulses of its targeted consumers (Enkerli 2006, 1). Similarly, the role of soccer fandom as a
vehicle for identity construction has been studied in an array of scholarly works (eg. BernacheAssollant et al. 2011; Bairner and Shirlow 2001; Goldblatt 2006; Wagner 2012). As an example
of the sort of ideas put forth in this soccer/identity body of scholarly literature, Wagner (2012)
iterates that match attendees and supporters actually put on a performance for themselves, other
spectators, and most importantly for their teams as both a creation and presentation of
particular collective social identities (8-9). Thus given its prior-stated role as a cauldron of
energy for the MLS, soccer fandom within Portland specifically serves as a particularly fruitful
platform for an examination of collective social identity to take place.

ANALYSIS
PTFC-oriented Craft Beer Industry; Industry/Textual Analysis
Responding to the first research question of how does the PTFC organization and its
supporter network incorporate the local craft beer industry to express Portlands unique
culture (per its stated hip and creative reputation and extensive artisan economy)?, a broad
argument of this paper iterates that the PTFC-oriented craft beer industry applies neolocalism to
garner support for the club. This assertion is supported by the diverse wealth of collaborations
between the PTFC organization and the Portland-area craft beer industry. Since its inception into
the MLS in 2010, the PTFC club has collaborated with the craft beer industry in the form of
exclusivity deals (ie; the clubs multiyear founding partnership with local Widmer Brothersa
representative brewery of Portlands Craft Brewers Alliance), PTFC-themed beers, homebrewing
competitions within its independent supporter groups such as the Timbers Army (and one of its
subgroups, 107st), and the Portland Pub Partners program (Pfenning 2009; Portland Timbers
Organization 2013 ).
Established in 2010 during the Timbers inaugural MLS season, the Pub Partners program
establishes partnerships with local pubs/restaurants/breweries by demarcating these
establishments as host sites for official viewing parties, events, debuts/tastings of said PTFCthemed beers. These designated Pub Partner businesses30 to be exactdot the Portland
municipal area. Including an illustration of the wide range of Pub Partner viewing party dates,
Figure 3 depicts the range of establishments included in the 2012-2013 program. Stated in the
requirements for becoming affiliated as a Level 1 partner of PTFC (see Figure 4 snippet of Pub
Partners promotional material), establishments in the Portland metropolitan area must meet the
PTFCs standards by 1) investing in a pre-determined number of Timbers ticket purchases, 2)

showing all televised matches with volume, and 3) being located within 15 miles of Jeld-Wen
Field (the Timbers home stadium).

Figure 3.

The calendar graphic at left depicts
the wealthy range of bars, brewpubs,
and restaurants serving as the PTFCs
Pub Partner locations. Included are
thee times/dates of viewing parties.
Each of these listed locations, as
mentioned in the verbatim excerpt
from the Timbers official website (the
source of this figure), agreed to play
every Portland Timbers match with
sound ALL SEASON LONG!.

Bolstering an argument claiming that a PTFC-oriented craft beer

economy acts as an embodiment of neolocalism, these requirements
consciously foster an attachment between the club and its immediate
surrounding localities by exclusively demarcating the official

Figure 4. Pub Partners

pub
requirements derived from
a
promotional flier for the
program

consumption (ie; official acts in reference to, for instance, viewing

parties at designated Pub Partners-affiliated establishments) of Timbers
games to establishments found only within a 15-mile radius from JeldWen Field. Uncovering a geographic component to PTFC fandom, this
particular requirement iterates the importance of setting in the context of
neolocalist consumption that Flack (1997) outlines in his Ale-ing for a
sense of place work. Evoking Flacks assertion that setting is an
important part of beer consumption in the creation of a uniquely local
experience (48-49), the role of local setting as a crucial aspect in the process of nurturing
neolocalism is explicitly echoed within the Figure 4 promotional material snippets encouraging
of PTFC fandom (ie. viewing Timbers games) to take place at a specific geographically local
scale. Upon calculating the total area within a 15-mile radius of Jeld-Wen Field (using the A=
3.14r 2 circle area formula), the official and/or club-endorsed local definition of fandom put
forth by the Pub Partners program is demarcated to an area of 706.8583 miles 2.
Another robust channel of collaboration lacing the PTFC-oriented craft beer industry
comes in the form of homebrewing competitions held at local, soccer-centric
bars/brewpubs/breweries/restaurants. Most recently, the fourth annual Timbers Army
Homebrew event took place at a tavern owned by Lompoc Brewinga Portland-area brewery

that produces the Timbers-themed craft beer titled Kick Axe Pale Ale. Marketed specifically
towards the Timbers Army supporter group, this multi-year homebrew event facilitates an
opportunity for Portland residents to act on their neolocal impulses and attain a connection to
both PTFC and the Portland-area craft beer industry by directly participating in the action of
brewing itself (Portland Timbers Organization 2013). As an illustration of real people in real
places making local products, this participation on the parts of Portlander fans in the PTFCoriented craft beer industry (through their individual production of homebrewed craft beer at
publicized Timbers homebrew events located at, for instance, soccer-centric locations like
Lompocs Side Bar Tavern) succinctly captures ideas alluded to in the Microbreweries as
Tools of Local Identity writing of Schnell and Reese (2003) per their insights on the neolocal
philosophy of the microbrewery movement (66).
PTFC-Themed Craft Beer; Bottle Textual Analysis
En masse, aims of the bottle textual analysis/surveying portion of this investigation are
primarily geared towards responding to the second stated research question of how does the
cultivated PTFC-oriented craft beer industry (as an expression of this unique Portland culture)
draw on neolocalism to influence supporters social identities? The survey analysis effectively
captures the neolocalist tendencies, emotions, and feelings undergirding Portland residents roles
as fans of PTFC soccer and enthusiasts of craft beer. In this vein, taking a critical glance at
Cascade Brewings Portland Ale via textual analysis uncovers how PTFC-themed craft beer
label images (and their names) apply neolocalism to market the uniqueness/distinctiveness of
both Portland and PTFC.
As a Timbers-themed beer produced by a Portland-area craft brewery, Cascade Brewing
Companys Portland Ale (see Figure 5) is, upon analysis of its label, seen to engender strong

pulls of hometown loyalty that adheres to Portlanders

neolocalist cravings for local place-based uniqueness. Similar to
the manner in which Schnell (2003) pointed to the images,
promotional material, and the beer names themselves of
numerous craft beers produced by West Coast/Colorado
microbreweries as manifestations of neolocalism, the craftbrewed and Timbers-themed Portland Ale caters to

Figure 5. Bottle label of
Cascade Brewing
Companys
Portland Ale,a PTFC-
themed craft beer

Portlanders neolocalist cravings for distinctiveness (and their

parallel neolocalist rejections towards homogeneity) in its name
and label images (48). In an initial evaluation of the name of this

pale ale brewed by Cascade Brewing Company, it is quite clear that that beer serves as a readily
consumable and therefore active purveyor of a place attachment to the city of Portland. As such,
it markets and appeals to the neolocalist consumption tendencies of local craft beer/soccer
enthusiasts. This neolocalist marketing technique is bolstered by such images depicted in the
label as the roses (evoking, alongside Soccer City, another one of Portlands famous monikers
in the form of the City of Roses), a soccer ball, an axe, the flag of Portland, and the official
PTFC rising sun flag. As an additional promotion of PTFC soccer, Cascade markets the beer
as a favorite beer of the Timbers beloved former mascot, Timber Jim (De Leso 2011).
PTFC Fan Attitudes; Survey Analysis
To effectively frame the whereabouts of the impassioned enthusiasm for
soccer/PTFC/beer perceived to characterize the PTFC fans that participated in the survey portion
of the research, Figure 6 illustrates the degree to which the survey sites promote facets of
neolocalist marketing in their hefty displays of soccer, PTFC, and craft beer memorabilia (ie;

banners, flags, scarves, calendars, paintings, neon signs, jerseys, signed Timber Joey slabs of
wood, etc.). Snapped at the various local soccer-centric establishments that were used as survey
sites, images of these readily observable promotions of a PTFC/craft beer/soccer nexus offer a
visual representation of what is deemed as a PTFC-oriented craft beer industry. With that as a
foundation, the 54 total surveys (for included questions, see Figure 1) conducted were split
between 32 males and 22 females. Three questions were particularly revealing in the process of
characterizing the Portland Timbers supporter culture as purveyors of neolocalist consumption
tendencies.
An evaluation of repeat survey answers (responses that were provided verbatim in the
completed surveys of multiple participants) for the question of in one word, how would you
characterize the Portland Timbers supporter culture? revealed the following to be intrinsic
values to the PTFC fan identity/culture: community, hipster, unique, strange,
weird(ness), independent, loud, local, beer, and grassroot(s). This existence of
duplicate answers (despite the option at the helm of all participants to choose any given word in
the English language as a response to this survey question) supports the assertion that similarminded Portlanders use PTFC fandom as a vehicle to construct a collective social identity.
Another pattern appearing in responses to this question presented itself in the form of various
exclamation mark-emblazoned onomatopoeic words (these are words that phonetically imitate
the source of the sound that they describe) such as the whoo!, woohoo! hoo-rah!, woof!,
and PT-FC!. This latter response pattern, as an effective written representation of chants
vocalized during PTFC games, emphasizes a communal sense of rowdiness seen often in
soccer/sports media as a defining characteristic of the Timbers Army (Belson 2013; Wagner

2012). This sense evoking a European-style hooliganism amongst fans in their perception of
collective identity or what it means to be a Portlander PTFC fan (Wagner 2012, 9).
The other two bodies of answers at hand for closer examination came in response to
questions six and nine, respectively. Stated in the following per the order of their appearance on
the survey handout, these questions are: are you likely to purchase local beer over national
beer (eg. PBR, Coors)? and would you purchase your favorite local beer as often if it were
bought out by a larger national brewery (eg; PBR, Coors)?. An overwhelming ninety-six
percent of participants (fifty-two out of the fifty-four) responded with yes to question six,
indicating that they are more likely to choose the local over the national in terms of beer.
Regarding question nine, more respondents conveyed that they would not purchase their favorite
craft beer as often if it were bought out by a larger national macrobrewery like Coors or PBR.
The statistical spread of answers to this question are as follows: twenty-seven answered no,
twelve answered yes, and fifteen answered maybe. Of note regarding this distribution of
answers is the fact more than participants answering with no came in at more than two times
(2.25 to be exact) the number of participants answering with yes. Results from both of these
posed questions emphasize an aversion amongst residents for the national (in the form of
macrobreweries) and an altogether embrace of the local (in the form of Portland-produced craft
beer) that evokes the earlier stated definition of neolocalism as a movement to reject national, or
even regional, culture in furtherance of restoring the perceived distinctiveness of uniquely
local experiences and bolsters the writings thesis asserting that the approval/consumption/
embrace on the parts of Portlanders of PTFC and craft beer is driven by collective neolocalist
impulses (Flack 1997, 38-49). Acknowledging this neolocalist undergird to Portlanders support
for PTFC soccer and local craft beer, the PTFC-oriented craft beer industry and its implanted

collaborations are seen to foster neolocalism through targeted marketing strategies.

Figure 6. At left are images of

survey sites. The array of
readily observable promotional
items and memorabilia per craft
beer/PTFC/soccer serves an
outcome and apt visual
embodiment of a PTFC-oriented
craft beer industry.

CONCLUSION
With these survey answer patterns as a foundation, a response to the writings central
research questions can be formulated. It is argued that supporters social identities are
collectively constructed as an embodiment of neolocalism. This is shown in their support of
PTFC soccer as (1) a local rejection of sports that are traditionally more popular on a national
scale (ie; American football, Americas pastime of baseball, etc.) and in their support of craft
beer as (2) a rejection of the homogeneity of larger corporate brands (ie; Coors) representative of
a more national culture (Flack 1997, 38).
Teamed with this, data collected through the varied methods employed in this
investigation (textual analysis, industry analysis, surveys, and participant observation at survey
sites) uncovers neolocalism to be a consciously fostered marketing platform for the PTFCoriented craft beer industry to facilitate Portlanders identity construction and culture expression.
Whether it be the Timbers-themed Portland Ales use of specific images to
promote/portray/market place attachment as a reprieve from the smothering homogeneity of
larger corporate brands, or data derived from surveys conducted at soccer-centric bars (including
an array of Pub Partner establishments) pointing to fans rejection of nationally available
macrobrewed beer in furtherance of restoring the distinctiveness of locally microbrewed craft
beer, it is concluded that the outlined role of PTFC soccer and craft beer within the Portland
Soccer City further substantiates the theory of neolocalism.

Craft beer is produced at craft breweries. For purposes of this research, the term craft breweries
refers to two types of businessesmicrobreweries and brewpubs. A microbrewery is generally
defined as a brewery that produces up to 15,000 barrels annually and sells no more than 50% of its
beer in an on-site restaurant, while a brewpub is a brewery that sells over 50% of its beer on the
restaurant-set premises (Schnell 2006, 67). A conceptualization of craft beer (including its history,
defining characteristics, etc.) is expanded on in the background section.
1

2 Regarding the term postmodernity, Harvey (1989) argues that, beginning around 1972, there has

been a sea-change" in political/economic/cultural practices that involve the emergence of a new

postmodern sensibility in numerous fields and disciplines that is, as a result of capitalist
developments, characterized in new technological developments, flexible motions of capital, etc. (vii)

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