There are some nice things about having an owner who is an active voice and gets off on having the details and dangling nuggets in front of a hungry fan base. It's fun and engaging for a lot of fans. But this season Merritt Paulson has developed a habit of only engaging the fan base in good times (after victories--lean hard on your memory and you'll find some). If not for the immediately-following weeks of embarrassment, his comments at the John Spencer is Fired presser would have been alright.

But now there have been these horrible weeks punctuated for me by trading one of the guys I can count on to bring it and I guy I'm happy to come to the park to watch (TBH I don't hate the Perkins move--while maintaining the right to hate it later--but the timing was atrocious and as many have concluded it's hard to see how it is anything better than lateral). His man Wilkinson is running the show and doing about as poorly a job as one could imagine on most every level.

The season has been a series of kicks to the crotch with a handful of moments of respite that seem fairly meaningless at this point now that we're up against a steel-toed boot. I love going out to the park to watch the games, but I'd be lying (and probably healthier) if I said the way things are going this season hasn't effected my experience at Timbers games.

And very soon I'm going to be asked to renew season tickets. I mostly don't care what kind of fan you think I am, but I don't have a lot of money and there are better uses for it under the best Timbers circumstances. I could probably get by on a few single games a year until I found myself at the front of the STH reservation line (which may not be long if things continue this way) in a better financial position (no clue when that might be).

Why should I renew my season tickets? (You can throw the 'because you're a real fan' answer at me if you want but they won't be very effective). Why should I have any confidence that next year won't be as disheartening and downright insulting at times as this year was? I'm interested in your answers here in this forum, and especially in "Owner, President and Supporter" Merritt Paulson's answers. I'd love to hear both his plan and his pitch before I ante up on another year. Obviously, I don't expect him to do that here, but I hope he does through some outlet.