THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Vandals’ next foe: ‘Have Team, Will Travel’

The beers won’t be on Bruce Barnum this Saturday at the Kibbie Dome.

But last year, at a Portland State “home” football game, they were.

Since 2019, Barnum and the Vikings have had to play their “home” games in Hillsboro, some 14 miles to the west via state highway 26.

Last year, prior to Portland State’s home game vs. Western Oregon, Barnum went on popular columnist John Canzano’s statewide radio show and offered to buy beers for all adult fans who attended.

“At the end of it, everybody had fun,” Barnum said during the summer, at the Big Sky Football Kickoff in Spokane. “It brought attention not just to our team, but our university. The president came to the game. Everything I needed to have happen, happened. We won… so yes, everything worked out.”

PORTLAND STATE won 21-7 before a crowd of 3,124.

Barnum’s tab?

Over $14,000 in beers.

“But the administration, thank the Lord, called me in, and said, ‘You know what, for $14,000 we couldn’t buy that advertisement for Portland State University. Ever.’ So the brass covered it,” said Barnum, whose Vikings play at Idaho on Saturday. “I hear this year they bought a bunch of beer mugs with my face on them, and they’re going to give away beer in those if you buy the mug.”

Hey, whatever gets fans in the seats.

“I know it brought people to the game that might not have ever been there before,” said Barnum, in his eighth season as Portland State head coach, and 13th overall with the Vikings. “And then Canzano helped us out. He runs a camp in the summer that my team helps out with, for his BFT (Bald Faced Truth) Foundation. He brought those kids to a game with their parents. Helped out a section. It paid off as far as attention, but it also brought people to my stadium that hadn’t been there before. And they had a good time.”

SOMEDAY SOON, Portland State would like those fans to have a good time at a Vikings football game actually played in Portland.

The Vikings played at what was formerly called Civic Stadium in Portland for years. But PSU football was eventually squeezed out of what is now called Providence Park, in part because of scheduling conflicts with the stadium’s main tenant, the Portland Timbers of the MLS.

But Oregon State, which is renovating its football stadium in Corvallis, was able to book Providence Park for a “home” game vs. Montana State earlier this season, a development that irked Barnum.

“It pisses me off,” Barnum was quoted as saying to Canzano. “That pisses me off, I mean come on. Are you kidding me?”

Portland State athletic director John Johnson, who formerly worked at Eastern Washington, had only been on the job in the Rose City for a few weeks when he was asked at the Big Sky media event about his school’s football field situation.

“We need to get through a season,” Johnson said. “When I was previously in the league, we played at the old Civic Stadium. So I just haven’t been through a game there. We’re looking at what’s best for our program long-term, for our fans, just getting the feel for Portland, getting a feel for what they want, meeting city leaders … it’s very high on my list. I just really need to get through a year and see what they have, and see what’s best for us long-term.”

The ideal situation for the Vikings?

“I think everyone would like to have their own place,” Johnson said. “There have been some great civic stadiums that teams have played in. We’re unique in Portland, but really not ruling anything out right now, just trying to get a good feel on what would be best for us — where we’re at with improvements, is it downtown? … I need to see it through a season.”

Johnson said Hillsboro is spending millions on upgrades to its baseball stadium (Ron Tonkin Field, home of the Hillsboro Hops of the High-A Northwest League), which sits next to the football stadium.

“And hopefully that will have a positive impact on the football field as well,” Johnson said.

He said Hillsboro has been a “great partner” to Portland State. He said there are “some spots” on campus for a potential stadium, though “it’s a little tight.”

Or perhaps somewhere else in Portland, closer to campus than playing in Hillsboro.

“I want my guys to say at one point, this is our home field, instead of ‘Hey, we’re leasing this out for five years,’” Barnum said. “That would help, more recruiting than anything. Because these guys (other Big Sky coaches) use it against me. It’s become ‘Have Team, Will Travel.’ Where do you want us to whoop your ass?”

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.