Your 2019 Cleveland Indians

[AZ_]

One of the issues, sadly, is that baseball is your grandfather's sport. It's slow. It's boring. The games take too damn long. I still really like Progressive field on a warm summer afternoon or evening, but let's face it, the excitement of this current team ended with the blown 2-0 lead to the Yankees. And last year they weren't even in the same book at the Astros. I still think if they can keep things close at the ASG, if the pitching can get healthy, who knows? But it's not hard to understand that there is a bit of Indians fatigue this year after blown 3-1, blown 2-0 and then a very noncompetitive sweep.

Can imagine the fans are greatly fatigued after barely showing up for three years of playoff baseball.

 

[NorthCoastBias]

Can imagine the fans are greatly fatigued after barely showing up for three years of playoff baseball.

Can't expect them to start showing up until the team wins three consecutive titles and spends hundreds of millions of dollars on overpriced free agents, bro.

 

[MirORich]

Good for the constant Bad Fans vs Bad Owners debate is so tired and boring. It makes this part of the site almost unreadable. And it’s been going on for years.

Bottom line is with a 120M budget, teams can build legit title contenders. We succeeded in that framework for about 2-3 years but it is broken at the moment and doesn’t look fixable. It looks like it needs a re-set and pivot to a new window which will be a step back this year and probably next, but should not require a 3-5 year traditional rebuild period.

Can we talk about the best ways to successfully do that and stop pissing on each other about if the owner spent more or if the fans showed up more? Is that possible in this section?

Fully expectecing to get tomatoes thrown at me from both sides of the argument now and for each side to do what they always do for about 6-8 years straight in this section and just rip into each other some more with snark, derision, and blame.

Good stuff

 

[Mr. Orange]

Can imagine the fans are greatly fatigued after barely showing up for three years of playoff baseball.

Not sure what to tell you. This is not the 1990s. We aren't going to average 40K a game. Heck we aren't going to average 30K a game. Did you know that over 50% of MLB teams average under 30K a game? The Indians were averaging a respectable 25K the last couple of seasons. April/May games are always dismal. A WS victory would go a long way, but after 3 WS losses in the last two decades, there is certainly a lot of pessimism built in, and especially after the last 3 years. You may not like it, but that doesn't change the fact that there is Indians fatigue and a lot of fans aren't going to pony up after the recent letdowns. The diehards will show up, but in every sport you need casual fans, and the Tribe has blueballed the casual fan enough that they are just not interested now. Those are the facts. And Browns optimism is running wild right now. Rather back the up and comer than the tired old hat.

 

[Stark]

Best season ever.

 

[AZ_]

Not sure what to tell you. This is not the 1990s. We aren't going to average 40K a game. Heck we aren't going to average 30K a game. Did you know that over 50% of MLB teams average under 30K a game? The Indians were averaging a respectable 25K the last couple of seasons. April/May games are always dismal. A WS victory would go a long way, but after 3 WS losses in the last two decades, there is certainly a lot of pessimism built in, and especially after the last 3 years. You may not like it, but that doesn't change the fact that there is Indians fatigue and a lot of fans aren't going to pony up after the recent letdowns. The diehards will show up, but in every sport you need casual fans, and the Tribe has blueballed the casual fan enough that they are just not interested now. Those are the facts. And Browns optimism is running wild right now. Rather back the up and comer than the tired old hat.

Damn, my dreams of 40K per game are gone now that you’ve exposed it as fantasy.

Thanks for bringing the facts and putting me in my place.


Seriously though, losing in the World Series doesn’t adversely affect attendance in...well...any other sport ever.

But other than that (your central point), I’m sure you’re spot on.

 

[Mr. Orange]

Damn, my dreams of 40K per game are gone now that you’ve exposed it as fantasy.

Thanks for bringing the facts and putting me in my place.


Seriously though, losing in the World Series doesn’t adversely affect attendance in...well...any other sport ever.

But other than that (your central point), I’m sure you’re spot on.

And yet I'm the one who isn't funny.... this is a regular Tony Clifton.

Do you live in Cleveland? Do you talk to friends, family, coworkers? Believe me when I tell you that the pulse of the town is that the Tribe's window is over and no one is very optimistic.

 

[CBBI]

And yet I'm the one who isn't funny.... this is a regular Tony Clifton.

Do you live in Cleveland? Do you talk to friends, family, coworkers? Believe me when I tell you that the pulse of the town is that the Tribe's window is over and no one is very optimistic.

The window being closed in 2019 is kind of irrelevant to the fact the Indians were bottom 10 in attendance in 2016, 2017 and 2018 when the window was wide open, right?

 

[Mr. Orange]

The window being closed in 2019 is kind of irrelevant to the fact the Indians were bottom 10 in attendance in 2016, 2017 and 2018 when the window was wide open, right?

Attendance wasn't that bad for a smaller market.

 

[caf]

Seriously though, losing in the World Series doesn’t adversely affect attendance in...well...any other sport ever.

How many other sports have teams losing in the World Series?

I must have missed that New York Jets vs Winnipeg Jets World Series not too long ago.

 

[AZ_]

And yet I'm the one who isn't funny.... this is a regular Tony Clifton.

Do you live in Cleveland? Do you talk to friends, family, coworkers? Believe me when I tell you that the pulse of the town is that the Tribe's window is over and no one is very optimistic.

Whoa whoa whoa lighten up boss no need to be so triggered.

 

[AZ_]

Attendance wasn't that bad for a smaller market.

It was horrendous for any winning small market

 

[AZ_]

How many other sports have teams losing in the World Series?

I must have missed that New York Jets vs Winnipeg Jets World Series not too long ago.

And I must have missed runners up in any other sport having to deal with an adverse affect in attendance.

One of the more absurd excuses for what we should just agree is a relatively shit fan base in this city.

 

[Amherstcavsfan]

Attendance wasn't that bad for a smaller market.

Weren't they last or close to last the past 3 years?

 

[Huber.]

And I must have missed runners up in any other sport having to deal with an adverse affect in attendance.

One of the more absurd excuses for what we should just agree is a relatively shit fan base in this city.

The Cavs had trouble selling weekday games with the best player in possibly nba history playing for them during LeBron's last year. Season ticket holders lost a bunch on the resale market that year too