I think the temperature at Kezar is a major issue. When I went to the opening game, everybody I saw around me was freezing and some people seemed visibly unhappy about how cold it was. A 5pm kick off helps with that, but on the other hand, it means people don’t have time to really do anything during the day. I go to most Earthquakes games and they’ve moved nearly all of their games to the evening, which has greatly increased average attendance from my view. However, they do lie about the actual attendance, I don’t think I’ve ever heard them announce anything less than 18,000 even when it’s clear its’s way less. Kudos to the Deltas for not doing that.
I also think there needs to be more engagement with fans living outside the actual city of SF. There’s way more people in the suburbs, and it makes sense to target people as far as the Peninsula (San Mateo county). One way to do so is to partner up with Caltrain to offer people free train rides to SF if you have tickets. People can then Uber from there to Kezar, or perhaps there can be a special bus from the station to the stadium. The Quakes are doing that this weekend and they’ve advertised this heavily. The Deltas could do the same and it would really help with outreach for games, especially to those who may not yet know who the Deltas are. I live in San Mateo County and don’t know anyone who knows who they are, if they did, they’d at least consider going.