Timbers 2, the Portland Timbers' USL team, might not be in Portland in the long-run.

Timbers and Timbers 2 (T2) owner Merritt Paulson told Timbers in 30 that the club is evaluating its business model around T2 and is looking at the possibility of moving the team and finding a partner to help run the business.

"We also need to look at business-wise what's the right approach," Paulson said. "I'm not sure it's sustainable for us to continue to operate the team totally autonomously at the stadium. We're looking at partnership, similar to what Seattle has done with Tacoma. We could do that locally. We might even go out of state."

While Paulson said that T2 will continue to play at Providence Park and remain solely under the Timbers' control next season, he also said that the organization is already in the process of evaluating the long-term future of T2.

Pauslon said the club would consider aligning with another organization and moving T2 to another city -- either in Oregon or out of state -- in the future, similar to what the Seattle Sounders are doing with Seattle Sounders FC 2 (S2).

S2 is moving to Tacoma in 2018. The Tacoma Rainiers are taking over the business operations of the club, while the Sounders are continuing to run the technical side of the club.

Even if T2 leaves Portland and the Timbers relinquish some of their business responsibilities around the club, Paulson said that T2 will remain a key piece of the Timbers' developmental pipeline in the future.

Since launching T2 ahead of the 2015 season, the Timbers have used their USL side as a place to develop young players for the future, give up-and-coming players on the first team a place to get minutes on loan and give key Timbers players coming off injury a place to play competitive games.

"Long-term, it's certainly going to be a big part of our development pyramid," Paulson said. "USL will be a part of that, no question about that, but I think we will have to look at the right strategy and alignment for how that exists and where it exists long-term. That process has started right now."

Paulson said that the club would be evaluating the technical side of T2 in the offseason as well.

T2 had a devastating season in 2017, finishing dead-last in USL. While the main objective of T2 is to develop players not necessarily win trophies, the Timbers want their USL side to be competitive.

"Short-term, we got to ask some questions on T2," Paulson said. "We had a pretty rough season. That might be an understatement. We also had a bunch of the players that would have been contributing to that team in a really meaningful way called up to the first team because of our injuries. So, just by virtue of that fact, T2 served a purpose, but that didn't help the team's performance week-in and week-out."

-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com

503-853-3761 | @jamiebgoldberg