MLS commissioner Don Garber is in Portland today and expected to confirm an expansion franchise to the city. Although the league would not confirm an announcement was scheduled, owner Merritt Paulson, sources told The Oregonian, will be granted a team in the top tier of U.S. professional soccer to begin play in 2011 in a renovated PGE Park.

Paulson, owner of Portland's professional minor league soccer and baseball teams, will pay the $40 million fee required of MLS expansion teams. Friday's announcement will come two days after Vancouver, B.C., won a team and one day after Seattle's team makes its regular-season debut.