PORTLAND STATE PRESS RELEASE
Portland State’s September 30 football game against the University of Montana will be moved from Providence Park to Hillsboro Stadium due to a scheduling conflict with the Portland Thorns professional soccer team.
The Thorns will be playing their regular season home finale on that date. The game will be nationally-televised, which made any changes problematic.
As a result, Providence Park gave a Friday night game option for the Vikings and Grizzlies as a possibility. All date changes for league football games must be approved by both schools as per Big Sky Conference rules. Montana rejected the Friday night option and that necessitated a move to Hillsboro Stadium for a Saturday game.
“While we are disappointed that we are unable to play in our home stadium of Providence Park, we are grateful that the folks at Hillsboro Stadium have made the date available to us,” said Portland State Director of Athletics Valerie Cleery. “We strive to have all of our home dates consistent and downtown at Providence Park, but we were challenged to work out an arrangement in this case.”
Portland State has used Hillsboro Stadium as a home site in the past. The entire 2000 and 2010 seasons were played at Hillsboro while Providence Park was undergoing renovations each time. PSU also played single games in 2014 (Western Oregon) and 2015 (North Dakota) at Hillsboro due to scheduling conflicts at Providence Park.
“I’ll work with our staff and coaches to ensure the Hillsboro tailgating and game experience are better than ever as we kick off our conference season,” said Cleary.
Portland State’s other four home dates in 2017 will take place at Providence Park. Kick times for all home games will be announced soon.
The Viking program has used Providence Park (under various names) as its regular home venue since 1967, and played there as far back as 1949.
