BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.­—Portland Timbers owner Merritt Paulson knows he may never be able to spend at the levels of the billionaire owners who have quickly turned teams like Atlanta United and LAFC into MLS powerhouses, but sitting in the lobby of the Beverly Hilton a few hours before the MLS Board of Governors meeting convened last week, Paulson was also firm about something else.



“I won’t own the team,” he said, “if I don’t feel like we’re in a position to be a winner.”



Paulson is incredibly competitive, and he pays close attention to developments around MLS. Expansion has spurred MLS’s recent growth, one component of which is the infrastructure spending that has come along with new teams entering the league. And that growth, in turn, has led to further investment in Portland. Paulson doesn’t want to be outpaced.



The Timbers aren’t in the upper echelon of player spending with Atlanta,...