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Jeld Wen Field is at the center of frustrations for Portland State.

(Thomas Boyd/Oregonian)

Can't say I'd have handled things the same way, but the man Portland State hired to save its football program apparently had enough, and brought out the flame-thrower on Friday.

Dave Hersh said of his frustrations in trying to get football yard-marker and sidelines painted on the field located at 1844 S.W. Morrison St., "I'm tired of seeing us bullied."

Hersh contracted with the Vikings last year. His return to Portland, where he once co-owned the city's minor-league baseball franchise, was greeted by a mixture of enthusiastic applause and forehead-slapping disbelief. I suspect you'll do precisely one of those things when you hear about the spat over field paint at Jeld-Wen Field.

Hersh is not a small-plan guy. In 1979, he brought Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews and Whitey Ford to what was then called Civic Stadium for an unprecedented old timer's game. Wonderful event.

On the other hand, Hersh also needs a wide berth to do business. Hersh, who owned the Memphis Chicks, had a failed promotion there in 1994 end with fans throwing beer at him and booing after he had to cancel a game and didn't want to offer refunds.



In 1996, Hersh moved the Double-A Chicks to Jackson, Tenn., where he later immersed himself in a gridlock of litigation with that city. The City of Jackson sued him for $150,000 in unpaid ticket surcharges. He counter-sued for $3.5 million. Also, the mayor of Jackson sued Hersh for defamation.

Basically, a bloody headache.

Which brings us to Friday, because Hersh's job is to help save the football program. He's trying desperately to do that, and has a five-year contract with PSU. He went bold midseason 2013 to get one of the Vikings road games televised locally, with a broadcast crew that included Tim Tebow or another household name. It didn't come together. But you had to appreciate the ambition.

Now, Hersh is frustrated the Timbers aren't cooperating with his other plans.

PSU would like to put on a football "Legends Game" featuring ex-San Francisco 49ers greats and Portland State greats (Think: Neil Lomax) in conjunction with their own spring game. Also, the Vikings want to move their Big Sky Conference game scheduled for Saturday (Nov. 22) to a Friday night (Nov. 21) so it can avoid a season spent going head-to-head with Beavers and Ducks.

Jeld-Wen Field is a city-owned venue. The Timbers, like the Vikings, are a tenant. The venue is managed by Peregrine Sports LLC, the Merritt Paulson-led investment group that owns the Timbers and the Thorns. PSU is in the final year of an agreement that allows it, "... up to six (6) home games and three (3) postseason games," at the stadium in exchange for $17,500 in rent per game. The contract also gives Peregrine Sports "full scheduling priority."

At issue, how often football lines belong painted on the Jeld-Wen soccer field. And whether Peregrine Sports can limit PSU's access to Jeld-Wen just because it doesn't want lines painted on the field.

The Vikings would like to paint football sidelines, end zones and yard markers on the field for the spring game, the "Legends Game," and that Friday-night game in November. The Timbers, who have Major League Soccer's All-Star Game at the venue (Aug. 6) and a potential playoff game that same Nov. 21-22 weekend have denied both requests.

Mike Golub, the Timbers chief operating officer said, "They're good ideas. We'd love to host them. But we don't want to paint lines. Every time you paint lines the field suffers degradation. We're concerned with the state of the field."

It takes nine hours for a crew to paint the lines. Same time to scrub them off, weather permitting. Although, anyone who has seen Jeld-Wen post-football use would agree that you still see a hint of the football lines during a televised broadcast, from the stands, or from the press box for a few days after.

"We're focused on aesthetics and the long-term performance of the field," Golub said.

Hersh emphasized repeatedly on Friday that he doesn't view this as a PSU vs. Timbers fight. After all, it's Peregrine Sports LLC, on the contract not Timbers, and it's Hersh's company --- C-Level Sports --- that contracted with the Vikings. But even if you don't want it to be PSU vs. the Timbers, frankly, the spat boils exactly down to that.

"Bottom line is that (Jeld-Wen Field) is a municipally-owned building," Hersh said. "They don't have the right. We've played in that stadium for 40 years. We can go fight a drawn out legal battle that wins nobody anything... there is absolutely no grounds to deny PSU the right to play football games because they don't want to paint lines."

I've seen the contract between PSU and Peregrine Sports (

). Hersh is correct. It includes no language of any sort about football-specific paint and yard markers being cause for not allowing the Vikings a date. Also, though, there's no language about PSU having the right to hold a spring game there or old-timer's events at all. Also, the contract clearly makes the Timbers the primary tenant, and gives them scheduling priority, which leaves them driving the bus.

"We can't announce our schedule right now because of this nonsense," Hersh said. "At signing day, I'm talking to our base about the 'Legend's Game.' I expect that to draw people. We're stopped in our tracks because they don't want lines on the field."

Hersh and PSU are paying careful attention to what Paulson is saying and tweeting. Internally, the Vikings are bantering about the football lines being painted as lightly as possible on game days. They're frustrated that they can't schedule events, and are hinting strongly at litigation. They bristled, too, at Paulson's tweet in the run-up to a Sounders-Timbers MLS game at Jeld-Wen last November: "At the risk of giving away one of Caleb's strategies, we play to confuse Seattle w a field lined only for soccer."

CenturyLink Field in Seattle is lined for Seahawks games. I have to agree, the lines make the soccer appear to be secondary to the venue's use. But at debate here is whether Peregrine Sports LLC has the right to deny PSU use of the building not because of a conflict of dates, but simply because it doesn't want that shadow of the football lines on the field.

Said Hersh: "Every single request we make is denied."

Hersh irked the Timbers on Jan. 30 by emailing his frustration over scheduling to Paulson and Golub, copying the city, and others including Timbers key sponsor, William Hueffner, a vice president with Jeld-Wen. Now, he's going public with his frustration.

Anyone who knows the fiery Paulson knows Hersh overplayed his hand here. Paulson declined comment, referring me instead to the diplomatic Golub. Still, these two sides are going to have to sit down and hammer out new use deal after this year.

PSU must know this isn't how you do business.

As a compromise, Golub suggested that PSU could move the Nov. 22 game to the following Monday, Nov. 24. But Hersh said that won't work, as NCAA Division I-A playoff rules require all regular-season games to be completed by Nov. 22. Even deeper yet, is what happens between these entities moving forward.

That all feels dicey now.

Said Golub: "The contract is clear."

Said Hersh: "If (Timbers) ownership wants their own building, let them buy their own stadium."

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