Hawks are ready for a wild weekend at home

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There’s trouble afoot at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum these days, but not on the ice for the Portland Winterhawks. It’s off the ice in the stands, where fewer and fewer fans show up, something that’s not usual for the second largest city in the Western Hockey League.

The Hawks are averaging 3,695 fans per game, somewhere near 1,500 fans less than the average of every season from the previous decade.

After the pandemic, Portland’s attendance hit 3,325, which was in the middle of the league’s teams as the sports world got back to business of people being closer than six feet to one another. Last year it was 4,509 during a season in which the Hawks reached the second round of the league playoffs.

This season, Portland is 15-6-0-1, 31 points - just three points out of first in the Western Conference. In attendance the team is 1,700 fans on average behind Spokane. Within the league, the Hawks are actually in the middle of the pack again, sitting ninth among the 22 teams. But, it’s the size of the arena that makes Portland’s average somewhat depressing. Memorial Coliseum can easily seat more than 12,000 fans.

The team’s following regularly shows up on social media as management tries to rebuild the fanbase. Hawkeytown would do well to find its way to the Coliseum this weekend as Portland plays host to the top teams in the West - Wenatchee and Prince George during a run of three games in three days.

The Hawks meet the expansion Wild in Wenatchee Friday - playing opposite the Pac-12 Conference football championship game featuring Washington and Oregon. The teams rematch on Saturday at the Coliseum at 6 p.m. On Sunday, Portland plays host to West leading Prince George at 5 p.m.

After five days off, the Hawks play host to Spokane and Seattle on Dec. 8 and 9, respectively.

For a team that’s annually among those with league title aspirations, it would be good to see a crowd of more than 5,000 this weekend, which would be a first for a home game this season.

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