The Ongoing Attendance Problem

[Out of the Rafters at the Q]

Honestly, I don't care about baseball as much as I do about football/basketball because it's a conscious decision on my part.

I'll consider season tickets and investing myself emotionally into a baseball team when baseball has parity, which starts with a salary cap.

If that doesn't happen, I'll continue to be a casual fan, going to 5 or so games a year. It's not the Indians' fault. It's MLB's fault. When the entire league is basically a farm system for the teams who can afford to sign top talent, you have a product that just doesn't appeal to me.

 

[Nom]

Honestly, I don't care about baseball as much as I do about football/basketball because it's a conscious decision on my part.

I'll consider season tickets and investing myself emotionally into a baseball team when baseball has parity, which starts with a salary cap.

If that doesn't happen, I'll continue to be a casual fan, going to 5 or so games a year. It's not the Indians' fault. It's MLB's fault. When the entire league is basically a farm system for the teams who can afford to sign top talent, you have a product that just doesn't appeal to me.

I wish more people would just say this.

People go crazy to blame the owner, the weather, the economy, the team's record, etc just to try to prove this is a great sports town. Maybe this town just doesn't like baseball. That's fine - I just wish those of us that DO like baseball didn't have to listen to other people bitch about the owners 24/7.

 

[MoFlo]

Whether you like it or not, as has been mentioned, Perez just opened up a whole new can of worms by bringing up LeBron & the Browns.

I hope I'm wrong, but he won't get 1/2 the support from the fans that he got the 1st time around.

What do I think the problem is?

1.) Times have changed. When I was growing up (11 in 1995), most kids got into baseball. That was THE thing to get into. Now, it's more towards basketball because the Superstar mantra is as big as it has ever been.

2.) Speaking of the superstar mantra, LeBron brought a whole new flock of fans to Cleveland with him & brought a lot of Cavs fans back to the arena via his superstar status. While some (ok, maybe 'most') of them followed him to Miami, I'm sure there's still a good portion of fans who stayed & kept supporting the Cavs, in good part, due to the electric atmosphere at the Q, and chose to do that instead of going to sit for 3 hours watching an inconsistent team.

I'm not saying I agree with that line of thinking, just my 2 cents.

 

[kidduck]

What has the franchise done over the past 5 seasons that merit drawing 25K+ per game at the Prog?

And I will listen to what a professional athlete(CP) tells me about spending my $$$ the day they start making deposits into my bank account.

 

[Steve_424]

What has the franchise done over the past 5 seasons that merit drawing 25K+ per game at the Prog?

And I will listen to what a professional athlete(CP) tells me about spendingy $$$ the day they start making deposits into my bank account.

- One win away from the World Series in 2007.
- 1st Place through July and contended through August last season.
- Currently contending.

Now answer the same question about the Browns.

 

[AZ_]

And mind you, the Browns are twice as expensive.

Also, what have they done to draw half capacity? How about be a professional baseball team?

There are much shittier franchises than that which draw more than Cleveland, it's fucking pathetic.

More pathetic than any rebuilding this team could ever go through.

 

[The Oi]

Jesus. How does this argument continue? It's the worst argument on the website by far. Same people, same arguments, every single time.

We're literally reading the exact same statements that we saw a year ago.
Each person that's posted within the last three pages has made that same argument 10+ times in this thread during that time.

Unreal.

 

[Soda]

Funny how trading / drafting back-to-back Cy Young winners is never used in a positive way for the Indians - only in the negative that they traded them.

I don't disagree with your point - but I don't understand how Clevelanders continue to point at Dolan as some unique problem to Cleveland at the same time that Pujols, Fielder and Crawford just changed markets.

I know you're positive and always on the Indians' side. I appreciate that; I actually wish we could all be like that... However, there really isn't much silver lining in letting two front-end Cy Young caliber starters go. Especially when we pretty much only got Brantley in return for both combined. I can understand the whole CC/big arm guy thing, but Cliff Lee is a guy you keep in Cleveland.

 

[Nom]

Jesus. How does this argument continue? It's the worst argument on the website by far. Same people, same arguments, every single time.

We're literally reading the exact same statements that we saw a year ago.
Each person that's posted within the last three pages has made that same argument 10+ times in this thread during that time.

Unreal.

One page ago I said this team sucks - I don't think I've said that on here before.

I know you're positive and always on the Indians' side. I appreciate that; I actually wish we could all be like that... However, there really isn't much silver lining in letting two front-end Cy Young caliber starters go. Especially when we pretty much only got Brantley in return for both combined. I can understand the whole CC/big arm guy thing, but Cliff Lee is a guy you keep in Cleveland.

In the larger scope of the argument, there is. People say they don't want to attend because the team lets the stars go, yet when we had guys winning back-to-back Cy Young awards, it's not like the fans were lining up to see them. It's the flaw in the argument trading CC and Lee are the reason fans don't show up, but having CC and Lee didn't cause the fans to show up.

Things can only be seen in a negative light. Fans didn't enjoy the Cy Young seasons, yet are mad they aren't happening anymore.

 

[Nom]

I know you're positive and always on the Indians' side. I appreciate that; I actually wish we could all be like that... However, there really isn't much silver lining in letting two front-end Cy Young caliber starters go. Especially when we pretty much only got Brantley in return for both combined. I can understand the whole CC/big arm guy thing, but Cliff Lee is a guy you keep in Cleveland.

One quick note - I haven't seen any articles on this - but I don't think Cliff Lee enjoyed Cleveland. At all. He said more or less the same thing as Chris Perez after he left and supposedly was PISSED when they left him off the 2007 playoff roster.

The fact that he was traded 2 more times after we sent him off tells me his contract demands were probably scaring off a lot of teams.

 

[Jon]

In the larger scope of the argument, there is. People say they don't want to attend because the team lets the stars go, yet when we had guys winning back-to-back Cy Young awards, it's not like the fans were lining up to see them. It's the flaw in the argument trading CC and Lee are the reason fans don't show up, but having CC and Lee didn't cause the fans to show up.

Things can only be seen in a negative light. Fans didn't enjoy the Cy Young seasons, yet are mad they aren't happening anymore.

Faith in an organization - let alone in a sport is a fickle thing. Once lost, it's not easy to restore. Maybe we were spoiled by what Dick Jacobs was able to achieve in the '90's ... but he set the bar. The fact even that great period was invalidated by the steroids scandal doesn't help.

 

[Jon]

... and supposedly was PISSED when they left him off the 2007 playoff roster.

I was pissed when they left him off the 2007 playoff roster. I can only imagine what Cliff was thinking ...

 

[Huber.]

I was pissed when they left him off the 2007 playoff roster. I can only imagine what Cliff was thinking ...

What? He sucked that year. In the playoffs you go with a 4 man rotation and sometimes the 4th man isn't even needed. He was the odd man out with C.C., Byrd, Westbrook and Fausto playing out of their minds in the regular season.

 

[Huber.]

FWIW the Indians will have to average 26,600 from here on out in order to average 2 more people per game than last year.

 

[kidduck]

Tribe still has home weekend series coming up with Boston and the Yankees. Should be near capacity for those games. The only question is whether or not Tribe fans will be in the minority.