FC Edmonton has done a lot of work this offseason to win over the local soccer community, but there’s one more person they still need to win over, and that’s Mother Nature.

Game after game a troubling trend has emerged. A look back at the temperature in the days before and after an FC Edmonton game has shown if the club didn’t have bad luck, they’d have no luck at all.

In 13 of the 17 matches the team has played at Clarke Stadium over the last year, the temperature has seen a drop of at least four degrees on game day, with there being as much as a 10-degree drop on multiple occasions.

Alberta has a penchant for displaying it’s bizarre weather patterns, just ask Leonardo DiCaprio, but how can one team garner so much misfortune from mother nature?

It’s a trend that members at the club have certainly taken notice of.

“I haven’t gone into this sort of detail, but I have noticed the difference from the start of the week in training,” head coach Colin Miller said. “You think great, but then you look at the long-term forecast. They were calling for snow at one point for (our last home game). It just blows me away how quickly the weather can change and how unlucky we have been here with weather.”

In fact, prior to Wednesday’s Amway Cup game against Ottawa, FC Edmonton has only played four home games in temperatures above 19 C.

While the weather can play to the team’s advantage on the pitch — its much easier for the players to play a full 90 minutes in moderate temperatures — the effect can be witnessed most devastatingly on FC Edmonton’s attendance.

On days where the temperature is above 15 C — which is the average temperature for all of FC Edmonton’s 2015-16 home games — the team draws an average of 3,458 fans to Clarke Stadium. On the days below 15 C, their attendance drops down to 2,628 — a difference of 840 people through the gate.

In their most recent home game against Ottawa, FC Edmonton had their lowest home attendance since 2013. The club sold over 1,500 tickets to the game, but believe less than 1,000 people made their way to the park. Edmonton had flirted with temperature records earlier in the week, only to see snow on game day.

General Manager Jay Ball spoke to the effects that the weather can have on walk up attendance.

“It’s huge,” he said. “I did a lot of work with FIFA last year and if it rains or snows or is cold, fans think twice.”

It doesn’t seem to matter what time of year, the luck doesn’t seem to change. Last year’s Amway Cup game against the Vancouver Whitecaps had to be rescheduled due to snow in May.

“The Amway game last year?” Miller said. “Six inches of snow on the field. There’s no way we could have played, but the day before I believe the weather was OK. You’re thinking, ‘OK, just hang in there.’ Then all of a sudden you get up in the morning you go, ‘S—t, the game’s off here.’ ”

Barring a change in luck, FC Edmonton’s only option is to continue building their rapport with the city’s soccer supporters.

“Overseas, it rains in England half the time, but their stands are full. They show up in their rain gear and support their team. The onus is upon us to figure out how to overcome the barriers,” Ball said. “The reality is that we have to do a good job making connections to the community. It doesn’t matter what the temperature is, people will come if you develop that solid authentic connection with fans.”

“Its all about that emotional connection.”

In the classic baseball movie Major League, Dennis Haysbert’s character Pedro Cerrano tries to sacrifice a chicken in the locker room in order to hit a curveball (the team makes him settle for a bucket of fried chicken). Is there anything that the club will try to appease Mother Nature?

“I’m prepared to put a kilt on, do whatever I’ve got to do to get better weather and the crowds coming through,” Miller joked.

Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Knowing FC Edmonton’s luck, the weather will be pretty breezy that day.