Last week, the Cleveland Indians (Guardians) announced they have extended their lease for 15 additional years, through the 2038 season, with options to extend in five year increments beyond that time.
We were concerned about the extension because of all of the other news surrounding the baseball team over the past few seasons, namely the slashing (note, we didn’t use the word cutting) of the club’s payroll for players, and the departure of minority owner John Sherman, who purchased the Kansas City Royals.
We also found the lack of marketing by the team puzzling over the past few years. It was greeted by many fans as a sign the team would not be staying in Cleveland past the end of the current lease in 2023.
The fact ownership didn’t understand this is par for the course, as they are extremely tone deaf to what the fans want.
As part of the deal, the county and state governments are contributing to renovations and the modernization of Progressive Field, which is now 27 years old, which is hard to believe. And hopefully, one of the renovations is changing the eyesore in the right field upper deck.
Funny how the name change was announced and the government ponied up some money, right?
Seemingly each time the Cleveland payroll is mentioned, a corresponding comment is made by the team, and the supporters of the ownership, about the attendance, which has dropped since 2017’s 2.05 million figure to 1.74 million the last time fans were allowed in the ballpark at full capacity for a full season.
Keep in mind, that 2019 is a higher figure than in any year between 2012-16. So, depending on your perspective, more people are coming to games over the past ten years.
Perhaps one problem the team has is in conjunction with having the second lowest payroll in the sport this season, according to ticketiq.com they have the seventh highest average ticket price. We weren’t a business major in college, but we think it is safe to say if people aren’t buying your product, one reason could be that your price is too high.
Surely, they should realize getting 28,000 people at $40.00 per ticket is better than getting 20,000 paying $50.00 to get in, no?
We have said this many times over the past few years, but there is plenty of interest in northeast Ohio’s major league baseball team, the television ratings show that. However, fans don’t seem to want to go to Progressive Field.
If it were our team, we would be doing research to find out why.
Could be ticket prices or it could be the dynamic seating concept, or it could be things like closing the concession stands after the first game of a twi-night doubleheader, closing souvenir stands right after the game concludes, or having problems getting people inside the park?
How many times do you see a Sunday afternoon crowd trying to get in through the gates while the game in starting? Do they think these people also arrive late at movies so they can deliberately miss the first few minutes?
The good news is the Indians/Guardians will be playing on the corner of Carnegie and Ontario through 2038. Hopefully, the World Series drought hasn’t reached 90 years by then.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 