The retirement of lock Bill Davison and the departures of England flanker Pat Sanderson to Worcester and Ireland fly-half Paul Burke to Munster led to a calamitous run of eight league defeats on the trot in the first two months of the season.
Quins are languishing third from bottom of the table, just thee points ahead of beleaguered Worcester who prop up the Premiership. Before last weekend's 8-8 Premiership draw with Saracens, the club's Heineken Cup campaign collapsed with two consecutive defeats at the hands of the Neath-Swansea Ospreys. Quins then crashed out of the Powergen Cup when they were beaten 33-7 at Bath.
The club, who have lost the services of England's World Cup-winning centre Will Greenwood for four months after a shoulder operation, have won just three of their 12 games in the Premiership.
Few will give them a hope of upsetting second-placed Wasps but Quins are desperate to begin their new era off the field with some decent performances on it.
If they don't, Evans, whose dual role is unique in English rugby, may have to contemplate sacking himself.
Discontented fans have suggested the decision to build the new stand siphoned off money that should have been spent on rebuilding the team after the changes at the beginning of the season.
But Evans counters that the club need the new facilities to challenge the cream of the Premiership by increasing income.
The former Saracens hooker refused to think negatively during the poor run in September and October.
Evans is still ever the optimist, taking heart from the fact that Quins' three victories against Leeds, Sale and Saracens all came in a solid spell in November before the cup defeats.
He said: "We are unbeaten in the last four league games and you can't ask much more of the side, in terms of their league performance, in the last couple of months. Hopefully, we will able to continue that run at the weekend.
"If you look at the track record between Harlequins and Wasps in the last four years, there is very rarely much in it."
Quins led 13-10 at half-time when the two teams clashed at Causeway Stadium on Bonfire Night, but they went on to lose 19-16.
After Wasps, Evans's team have a difficult Premiership start to the new year with matches against leaders Leicester and Gloucester before a home game with struggling Worcester in mid-February.
If Evans's team can rescue their campaign, the club have every reason to be optimistic.
Quins fans have shown their commitment to the club by buying a record number of season tickets. The redevelopment will increase the capacity of The Stoop from 8,500 to 12,500.
On the back of England's World Cup triumph, all Premiership clubs are looking closely at maximising their income from attendances.
Leicester are considering moving away from Welford Road and joining the city's football team at the Walkers Stadium.
Evans believes Premiership clubs have the potential to average up to 20,000 spectators per game in the next decade. Rugby is never going to rival the crowds in football's top flight.
It is also hard to imagine average crowds surpassing those in football's Championship, which usually boasts big-name clubs such as Sunderland or West Ham which have much bigger fans bases.
Evans said: "Rugby has the potential in the next five to 10 years of having 12 clubs in the Premiership all averaging into five figures and some averaging closer to 20,000 than 10,000."
But the reality is that rugby clubs need to have a successful team to dream of those numbers. That is why Evans has to turn things around quickly in the new year.
Newcastle are another club to have enjoyed an increase in attendances and on Sunday they welcome back their star attraction, Jonny Wilkinson, to their starting line-up for the first time in 11 weeks when they take on Sale.
The England skipper injured his arm in October and since making his comeback against Edinburgh on 11 December has only appeared as a substitute. His return to a starting role means fans will be treated to an intriguing head-to-head between Wilkinson and Charlie Hodgson, his England fly-half rival.
