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Shapiro *Allegedly* Inserts Foot In Mouth

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Pyro Kinesis said:
You can write this down right now;

we win this season, attendance will go up
we win next season, attendance will go up
we win the season after that, we will be retiring a different number for "the fans"
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This is why you sit at the kids table.

Do you actually believe attendance is suddenly going to shoot up if they won a few more games in between their two 90 win seasons?

Nah, you don't....You just wish it was different.

I do too....I do too.
 
I miss the sell-outs man. :(
 
This shit just made it to Facebook... Heads are gonna roll.
 
Coc Rhakalu said:
Seriously, if the Indians can consistently put a winner out there people will show up. Fans aren't going to show up when they suck.
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I think this is his point. Fans keep saying, 'If you can put a consistent winner on the field, we'll show up!'.

Well, great. That's true of any fan base ever - and the exact definition of fair weather fans.

I'm hoping this quote means they're going to quit chasing the carrot of fans of those 90's teams that will never be happy. They need to create a fan base of Indians fans - similar to what the Browns have - that want to support and enjoy the team win or lose, not just when they are winning.

The Browns suck. The Cavs suck. Both of those teams still sell tickets. The Indians need to find a way to create a new generation of baseball/Indians fans - not fans who simply want to cheer for winning and refuse to support anything else.

Like it or not - sports aren't just about cheering for a winning team. They are about cheering for a team. Everyone freaks out about LeBron liking the Cowboys/Bulls/Yankees - yet say they will only support a winner.
 
Pyro Kinesis said:
I miss the sell-outs man. :(
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http://www.baseball-almanac.com/teams/cleiatte.shtml

You have to wonder when was Cleveland a "baseball" town. They didn't sell out the 1st 2 years in Jacobs Field. The 111 win team in 1954 averaged 17,000 +. The period between 1997 and 2000 is when they averaged 40,000. You COULD say that attendance has regressed toward the mean.

I love baseball and am happy to be living near an MLB team (I moved to the Canton area from the Buffalo area in 1996). I try to go to 2-4 games a year. If Shapiro's marketing strategy is to bring up the nostalgia of going to the ballpark, I'm not sure that's going to work...

When I moved here in '96, I went to a Canton-Akron Indians game at Thurman Munson. Nice time, nice park with mainly bleacher seating. The next year, Canal Park is built in Akron. Canal Park is 50x better than what Thurman Munson is. In 1996 there were 2 pro ball teams in NE Ohio. Now there are 5 (Akron, Lake County, Mahoning Valley, Cleveland and Lake Erie). I've been to Classic Park in Eastlake. It's a great park to watch a game. I'm sure that the parks in Avon and Niles are nice too. Those places average 2500-4000 a game. If I'm to show up for a "great night at the ball park with hot dogs and beer, etc", I could do that in Akron, or if I'm an eastsider, Eastlake, or if I'm in Y-town, I could see the Scrappers. And at a lower price than the $3.50/gal gas, $10 parking and $20 ticket that I spend to go to Progressive.

The mid-late 90s Indians were marketable, you knew who Belle, Thome, Ramirez, Omar, Robbie and Sandy were. Who's like that on the team now? Kipnis? Santana? C. Perez-but more for the things he says off the field.

Front office has a lot of work to do for attendance to be a respectable (25,000 +) a game.
 
Nom said:
I think this is his point. Fans keep saying, 'If you can put a consistent winner on the field, we'll show up!'.

Well, great. That's true of any fan base ever - and the exact definition of fair weather fans.

I'm hoping this quote means they're going to quit chasing the carrot of fans of those 90's teams that will never be happy. They need to create a fan base of Indians fans - similar to what the Browns have - that want to support and enjoy the team win or lose, not just when they are winning.

The Browns suck. The Cavs suck. Both of those teams still sell tickets. The Indians need to find a way to create a new generation of baseball/Indians fans - not fans who simply want to cheer for winning and refuse to support anything else.

Like it or not - sports aren't just about cheering for a winning team. They are about cheering for a team. Everyone freaks out about LeBron liking the Cowboys/Bulls/Yankees - yet say they will only support a winner.
Click to expand...

But the fans who will only go if we're winning support the winning team in their own area. They aren't going to go elsewhere to chase rings as a fan.
 
Indians were huge during the 90's because...

1. They had a really good team and were winning games.
2. Browns left town
3. Cavs weren't the greatest either therefore people chose the Indians.

Now we have owners with Haslam and Gilbert that the fans love and will support. The Indians, I don't know what it will take them to get fans in the ballpark.
 
Juicy said:
Indians were huge during the 90's because...

1. They had a really good team and were winning games.
2. Browns left town
3. Cavs weren't the greatest either therefore people chose the Indians.

Now we have owners with Haslam and Gilbert that the fans love and will support. The Indians, I don't know what it will take them to get fans in the ballpark.
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Don't forget a brand new stadium.

Obviously having a losing team is the biggest problem. It prevents people from getting hooked on the team and supporting them thick and thin.

But when you see years like 2007 and the first halves of the last two years, it raises the question of what kind of support a winning team would generate.

I think the team needs to work on creating a base of young fans that aren't just Indians fans because they were good when they were little. That's what the 90's Indians seemed to have, and now refuse to support a non-winning team. They need to get fans that love the team just for the team. The Browns have done that. It seems the Cavs have managed to do that to some extent.

That's what i took from Shapiro's comments. That if you are simply coming to see the team win, they can't guarantee that. But if you enjoy baseball and the Indians, there are all kinds of reasons to come and things to do.

It'd just be a helluva lot easier sell if they didn't trot out Kotchman and Shelley Duncan. Even if they just stuck with prospects who sucked, it would be easier to think they were building for the future and not treading water.
 
Its all over Friendster. Just came across my beeper too. Wildfire.
 
Nom said:
Don't forget a brand new stadium.

Obviously having a losing team is the biggest problem. It prevents people from getting hooked on the team and supporting them thick and thin.

But when you see years like 2007 and the first halves of the last two years, it raises the question of what kind of support a winning team would generate.

I think the team needs to work on creating a base of young fans that aren't just Indians fans because they were good when they were little. That's what the 90's Indians seemed to have, and now refuse to support a non-winning team. They need to get fans that love the team just for the team. The Browns have done that. It seems the Cavs have managed to do that to some extent.

That's what i took from Shapiro's comments. That if you are simply coming to see the team win, they can't guarantee that. But if you enjoy baseball and the Indians, there are all kinds of reasons to come and things to do.

It'd just be a helluva lot easier sell if they didn't trot out Kotchman and Shelley Duncan. Even if they just stuck with prospects who sucked, it would be easier to think they were building for the future and not treading water.
Click to expand...

I think they can do that with guys like Kipnis, Santana, Pestano, and Brantley. They have to market the young prospects/guys that have been up in the bigs for a few years to the younger fan base.

With someone like Perez who knows if he'll be here next season but he's speaking what the fans think. Like this tweet earlier today

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Going to get my workout on so maybe we have a winning team for you to come out and watch this year</p>&mdash; Chris Perez (@ChrisPerez54) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisPerez54/status/273791459524759553" data-datetime="2012-11-28T14:12:25+00:00">November 28, 2012</
 
I'm sure MySpace is jumpin' right now homie ! It's only a matter of time until the Christian Mingle gets a hold of this.
 
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