Jack, is this inflated counting method of Paulson's similar to PDOT's and Sammy's method where they count the bikers crossing over the Hawthorne Bridge? It's where they make the count on the nicest day of the year on a day when there is a bike event downtown, then extract these highest numbers for the other 353 days of the year. That's how Sammy comes up with 6% of all transit traffic is by bike. These might of had the same statistic instructor. On wait, Sam never went to college and took the course.

Sports teams inflate attendance figures all the time. The Beavers claim 1500 on nights where there clearly are only about 300 people in the seats.

The real question for us Portland taxpayers is how many tickets and how much overpriced food and stuff they actually sell. They don't announce those numbers.

Compare this to same time last year. Attendance tends to pick up pretty dramatically after school gets out in June....

From the box score:

Weather: 58 degrees, clear.
Wind: 3 mph, Varies.

FYI, for comparison to last year, first 12 games:

Game #1 - Durham - 4/1/08 - 6601
Game #2 - Durham - 4/2/08 - 896
Game #3 - Memphis - 4/3/08 - 3292
Game #4 - Memphis - 4/4/08 - 3360
Game #5 - Memphis - 4/5/08 - 3693
Game #6 - Ottawa - 4/8/08 - 3434
Game #7 - Ottawa - 4/9/08 - 3304
Game #8 - Ottawa - 4/10/08 - 3331
Game #9 - Norfolk - 4/15/08 - 3283
Game #10 - Norfolk - 4/16/08 - 3270
Game #11 - Norfolk - 4/17/08 - 3329
Game #12 - Fresno - 4/21/08 - 2981

Total: 40,774
Average: 3,398

All data avail on: www.seamheads.com

If last nights game had been played in Lents (in a smaller stadium), does anybody doubt that attendance would have doubled?

I'm not sure where those attendance figures come from, but I don't think they're ours. Neither Durham, Ottawa, nor Norfolk are in the PCL, and they wouldn't play here. Plus, a quick Google search reveals that Portland opened 2008 at home against Fresno on 4/3/08 in front of an announced crowd of 8432. (Did you use Portland, Maine's attendance figures? I can't figure out what mistake you made, FTR.)

Durham as in Bull Durham, a great baseball movie if ever there was one.

Look, why even worry about all that when the picture tells the story? If Portland was a Mom and Dad and the Beavers were their kids, could you charge them with neglect?
If they showed this picture in court and said, "Look at the horrendous home Portland has provided for this team" -would the jury buy it?

I think PGE Park looks very impressive in all these pictures. Why the hell don't we leave the Beavers there, and let the Timbers play there too? That decision may actually lead to their very survival as teams!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This whole thing amounts to a temper tantrum by a stubborn rich kid named Paulson. He's hysterically screaming, "But it's not good enough for me. I want 2 stadiums! I need a nicer one for baseball. I need to change this horrible old one for soccer. I'm paying a fortune that Daddy gave me so I deserve it. How can you treat me so bad? Me, me, me, me!!!"

Just look at the picture. Any judge would rule that this is not the friggin' 1927 Yankees. The soccer team is not Real Madrid. The home Portland has provided for its two charges is more than adequate and reasonable. It is more than practical. It's nice. A lot has already gone into providing for soccer and baseball in Portland. There is no neglect here. You could even argue that providing for these teams in the heart of the city shows a certain amount of love. I just don't see what Portland has done wrong.

The judge would then say, "Get this case out of my courtroom and tell that little rich kid Merritt to shut the F*CK up. Case dismissed." BAM!

Baseball attendance does not pick up until consistent warm weather arrives... You could go back to 2001 and see the same consistent numbers for early spring ball....

I believe I can account for the apparent discrepancy between the numbers and the snapshot.

They're adding the full membership of the MAC club into the attendance figures, inasmuch as they can view the game for free, and they might have been there.

Interesting that movie producers who fake attendance numbers get in big trouble because it's fraud. The fake numbers can entice people to go when they wouldn't otherwise or affect contracts based on the actual numbers.
Of course, that's the wholesome business of Hollywood. The city of Portland can only dream of having true accountability like that.

the real story in the pics is the Full BEER GARDEN... Lets expand the cheap beer angle , turn the whole thing into a serious beer venue.[hint :
go easy on the I D check]

(Did you use Portland, Maine's attendance figures? I can't figure out what mistake you made, FTR.)

"For the Record" is a pretty funny moniker forsomebody who's got the entirely wrong team and league. Another informed Paulson supporter! Probably a construction worker who knows nothing about minor league sports but does know the difference between a paycheck and an unemployment check.

Sheesh....

On friday morning I was talking to the Group Sales Coordinator for the Reno Aces Baseball Team about our happy group which will be in Reno over the Memorial Day Weekend. To let everyone know, the Reno Aces are the AAA Fram Team of the MLB Arizona Doamondbacks. And they not only play in the same League as the Beavers, but beat them badly when Portland played them a few weeks ago. They play in a brand new stadium that was largely paid for by the ownership group. According to Dan, they are averaging 4600 attendance right now, with 2-3,000 more on weekends.