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PORTLAND, Ore. -- To be in Providence Park for the NWSL playoff game between the Portland Thorns and Western New York Flash was to experience a success story unlike any in womens professional team sports. One wholly independent of the outcome.A story that is tempting to believe can be more how-to manual than fairytale.After his team pulled off a memorable upset against the Thorns, winning 4-3 in overtime, Western New York coach Paul Riley admitted the Flashs resulting trip to the championship game will happen ahead of schedule. He described a blueprint borrowed from FC Kansas City, the back-to-back NWSL champion whose reign officially ends this weekend.Find good young players and be patient while they grow into both their own skills and a system.Both the Flash and the Washington Spirit, with just three players between them who were on the U.S. Olympic roster (and one of those an alternate), hew to that blueprint entering the final.Earlier in the week, Riley summed up why the game this season with the most historical significance wont be Sundays final in Houston but instead the semifinal already played.The one where 20,084 people showed up because they cared who won.I think all the clubs in the league should be trying to get to that point, Riley said of the Thorns before the semifinal. What theyve done for our sport is unbelievable. I think the more success they have, the better it is for our sport.That from a man left unemployed by that same organization just a year earlier. There is nothing new or particularly profound in noting that the Thorns are successful. The paradigm is different in Oregon. The attendance for the semifinal was not only a league postseason record but very nearly more people in one afternoon than the league drew during the entirety of any of its three previous postseasons. That, after the Thorns averaged more than 16,000 fans per game in the regular season, a franchise best and nearly twice as many as any other team in the league (or the majority of teams in the WNBA, for that matter).Some of that is market, not just Portlands overall soccer affinity but specifically its connection to the womens game. The University of Portland womens team led the NCAA in attendance every year from 2005 through 2014. Even while rarely ranked in the polls in recent seasons, the Pilots still ranked fourth in Division I attendance a year ago. Yet if market were everything, the WNBAs Connecticut Sun, a short drive from Storrs and all those NCAA banners, would do more than rank in the bottom half of the leagues attendance.What doesnt get told is the fact that we really put the strength of our organization behind it in a real material way, said Merritt Paulson, owner and CEO of both the Thorns and Major League Soccers Portland Timbers. Its not that weve got some magic soccer fairy dust in Portland where everything soccer turns to gold. Weve got a really good organization here.Paulson acknowledged that it was as much a societal as business motivation when he became the only MLS owner to respond to entreaties to participate in the NWSL at its inception. It was a good deed more than a good investment, certainly based on the two leagues that preceded the NWSL. But it wasnt treated as an afterthought, even before the support forced management to adjust numbers on even best-case expectations.Theres been a commitment here from the general manager, from the owner to do what we can -- reasonably, sensibly, do what we can to put the players in the best spot, said Mark Parsons, who took over for Riley in Portland this season after coaching the Spirit. I think that has been superb. Its not as easy as wanting to spend money. How do you spend it?Not just on international stars like midfielder Amandine Henry, or Vero Boquete and Nadine Angerer before her. This season, as one small example, the team stayed on the East Coast for two extended road trips rather than return home between games. It cost more but it cut down on fatigue. The Thorns arent a write-off or an exercise in altruism. They are a business that works.Obviously everything is just on a totally different scale with the Timbers, starting with the expenses, Paulson said. So its different levels of magnitude. But at the end of the day, its ironic because their bottom lines look really similar. The Timbers dont make that much money, but they make money. The Thorns dont make that much money, but they definitely make money.Paulson contested the notion that the Thorns are unique. He suggested the recent expansion franchises in Orlando and Houston, similarly joint ventures with MLS franchises and second and third in NWSL attendance, respectively, are kindred spirits. And he pointed to the Seattle Reign, whose attendance climbed to a four-year high even as the on-field fortunes waned, as a model of success for teams without the infrastructure of MLS connections. Still, those three teams combined drew not that many more fans than the Thorns alone.There was something gloriously different about the semifinal at Providence Park, about the hum of activity outside the stadium on an otherwise quiet Sunday afternoon, the scarves and drum beats in the stands and even the profane baying for the referees (hopefully) figurative hide. It was so different it was easy to forget that, like their counterparts across the salary-capped league, few of the non-internationals on the Thorns make enough strictly on salary to call this a full-time job.For that to change, for it to matter which teams win titles, it has to look more like this past Sunday. Be it full-size replicas or scale models.You look at the growth trajectory weve had over the last three years, its really, really steep, Paulson said. Is that sustainable through 10 or 15 years? Probably not. But I think we will continue to be on a really, really steep growth trajectory for the next several years. I think youre going to see a very different league in the next two or three years. Hopefully a league that will have at least a handful of clubs that are very similar to the Thorns in their off-the-field success. Air Max 90 Homme Pas Cher Francais .35 million, one-year contract that avoided salary arbitration. Plouffe batted .254 with 14 home runs and 52 RBIs in 477 at-bats last season, his second as a regular in the lineup. Air Max 270 React Pas Cher Homme . Most important, perhaps, it went off without a hitch. Organizers poked a little fun at the now-infamous opening ceremony gaffe that saw only four out of five snowflakes open up into rings, leaving the Olympics logo one ring short. http://www.outletairmaxpascher.fr/fausse-vapormax-noir.html . Duchene scored two goals and had an assist, helping the Colorado Avalanche beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-2 on Friday night to match the best 10-game start in team history. Tn Pas Cher Livraison Rapide . - Derek Wolfe says hes finally healthy after suffering a seizure in November that doctors now believe was related to the spinal cord injury he suffered in the preseason. Basket Femme Air Max 90 Pas Cher .J. -- Pitcher Carl Pavano is retiring after 14 major league seasons. Focus hasnt always been Bubba Watsons forte, but he showed up this week in Cromwell, Conn., for more than a ceremonial defense of his Travelers Championship title.The worlds sixth-ranked golfer is the highest-ranked player in the field this week, and he will hop on a plane to Rio de Janeiro after his final round to represent the United States in the Olympics. But if Watson wants a breather before the grueling FedExCup playoffs that begin Aug. 25 and the Ryder Cup Sept. 30-Oct. 2, he must focus on the task at hand this week.Watson enters the Travelers ranked ninth in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings, one spot outside of the eight automatic spots for captain Davis Love IIIs team. He acknowledged that he might add the Wyndham Championship on Aug. 18-21 to his schedule if he doesnt play well this week.Watson doesnt typically play the final tournament before the playoffs, but with the John Deere Classic taking place during the Olympics, the Travelers presents Watson with his best opportunity to improve his Ryder Cup position and guarantee himself some time off.My thoughts are, play good here, Watson said. I dont want to go off a (captains) pick. Ill take a pick all day long, but its better to set yourself on that team than to rely on a pick.Watson shot four rounds in the 60s and beat Englands Paul Casey in a playoff to win the Travelers Championship for the second time last year, earning a $1.152 million paycheck and 500 FedExCup points. He overpowered the TPC River Highlands course en route to a 16-under 264 during regulation, but Watson will tackle a track that has undergone some significant changes since last summer.Established in 1928, the TPC River Highlands has been one of the most popular stops on the PGA Tour since 1984. It gives up a lot of birdies and the scoring is traditionally low, but this years tournament features new sight lines around the closing stretch. That begins with the par-4 15th, which will play just under 300 yards from almost every hole location. The tee box was raised, five bunkers were removed, including three to open the view of the water back-left of the green, and the putting surface was reshaped to open locations closer to the water.What they did on 15 was fairly subtle, said Peter Malnati, who has a win and three top-10s this season..ddddddddddddBut its still going to make a big difference.The 16th and 17th holes also underwent subtle changes to open up sight lines, and around 60 bunkers were removed or moved into more strategic places to tighten up the course. The intention was to force players to be more strategic off the tee.(The 15th is) a neat hole, its a great amphitheater area there, too, with 15, 16 and 17 and that whole vicinity, said 2006 Travelers champion and Fairfield, Conn. native J.J. Henry. In my opinion, in growing up here and going here as a kid and stuff, its probably one of the best spots, if you will, to watch golf on the PGA Tour kind of around that three-hole stretch.Also in the field this week for the $6.6 million purse ($1.188 million winners share) are two of Watsons U.S. Olympic teammates, Patrick Reed and Matt Kuchar.Reed has a pair of runner-up finishes this week, but missed the cut at the Travelers last year. Kuchar did not play the event in 2015. Reed and Kuchar also have Ryder Cup positioning on their minds as ironically, along with Fowler the four Olympic teammates sit 9-12 in the U.S. team rankings.Reed received his Olympic team gear and golf bag this week, and debuted it during practice.Im obviously very excited to play for the Olympics, if you couldnt tell, I mean Im in red, white and blue today, and Im actually debuting the Olympics bag today, Reed said Tuesday. I thought it would be great for the fans to see. Its the only time theyll actually be able to see it is on TV at the Olympics, so I was proud to be able to bring it out and wear the colors proud this week.Denmarks Soren Kjeldsen, Germanys Alex Cejka and Irelands Padraig Harrington are the other three Olympians in field this week.So while the rest of the world prepares for the opening to the Rio Games on Friday, there is a lot on the line for many of the marquee names in the field this week. Watson figures to be very high on Love IIIs captains pick even if he doesnt play well this week or overtake Brandt Snedeker for the eighth automatic spot, but he has another way to put a feather on his Ryder Cup resume.I figure a gold medal would help, Watson said with a smile. ' ' '