Portland Thorns FC head coach Cindy Parlow Cone
Support
The Thorns led the NWSL in attendance from 2013 to 2021, and from the inaugural season were the first team to have averaged more than 10,000 per match in league attendance, and in 2019 became the first to average 20,000 per match. Inaugural Thorns coach Cindy Parlow Cone, previously a United States national team player, compared the support and atmosphere at Thorns matches to World Cup and Olympics matches.The team has a single organized supporters' group, the Rose City Riveters, that is recognized by the Thorns front office with privileges to stand, play instruments, and wave flags in the south general admission stands. Founded by a group composed primarily of members of the Portland Timbers supporters' group Timbers Army in 2013 as the Thorns Alliance, they adopted the Riveters name on April 3 and adopted many of the practices and shared infrastructure with the Timbers Army, including the creation and coordination of large and complex tifo displays and performing football chants throughout the match. Both the Riveters and Timbers are considered part of the umbrella supporters organization 107 Independent Supporters Trust (107IST), named after section 107 in Providence Park that both groups use.The large crowds attended despite Timbers front office expectations of 7,000 fans per match and little promotion before the team's launch. The immediate and sustained strength of support prompted other women's clubs to try to replicate the Thorns' success, including formal studies of the role of organized support in women's soccer that focused on the Riveters.
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