I know it's you've only have three home games so far. But there is a wide range in the attendance figures, 9,000 ; 6,000 ; 3,000 (figures rounded). What is probably a view of your regular fan base? What do you need to grow your base? Since your no longer owned by the Pacific League have you seen a increase in front office and their attention for the team?
It's commonly believed that every team inflates attendance numbers, and the Timbers are no exception. In my opinion, though, the announced attendance for the 3 league matches and the friendly vs Necaxa (7761) weren't exaggerated by much. That we drew close to 8000 for opening night vs. Puerto Rico is huge, as we normally start the season slowly vis-a-vis attendance (springtime weather in Portland is an iffy proposition - we had an April friendly against LA Galaxy a few years ago in a frigid hailstorm), and build up to some good draws in July and August. I would consider it a success and a noteworthy improvement over last season if we could average 6000+ this year. The game against Rochester - on a Sunday afternoon which also happened to be Mother's Day, two days after another match - is hopefully a bit of an anomaly. I expect our remaining two friendlies (vs. AC Milan U21s June 19 and vs. Preston North End July 28) will help bolster attendance.
It should also be said that attendance seems to be affected somewhat by our only daily local paper, the Oregonian, almost completely dropping coverage for some games. The Puerto Rico game and Necaxa game were well-promoted in the paper, with a few days of previews for each. The Friday night Seattle game (our biggest game of the year, for most Timbers fans) and the Mother's day Rochester game did not get any pre-game coverage except a few sentences of mention in the "In the Region" section. The Seattle game didn't even attract a writer to the game. The only coverage they gave the game was a few photos they got from an independent photographer and a small writeup taken right out of the press release. There does to be some correlation between smaller-than-expected crowds and media blackouts from our only major paper, but the crowds for the last two games were very disappointing, no matter whether the Oregonian has stopped covering us or not. Here is a picture of the main grandstand from the Necaxa game: The Timbers Army was a bit smaller than usual that night, no doubt due to reserved seating, but probably numbered about 500
Close. It was "Timber Jim's Little Book of Big Songs" and was needed to follow along with some of the songs Timber Jim led that night. It was a fun night. Too bad they insisted on reserved seating that night. It scattered some of the Army to other parts of the stadium as the cheapest seats that night weren't in the North End.