Browns were kind of a joke in their last years and when they started back up, not gonna lie...
We are also forgetting to factor in, a lot of businesses left north eastern Ohio as well, so it goes like this...
Factor one, Indians stopped being the only legit team in town...
Factor two, lots of jobs left northeastern ohio
Factor three, baseball in general took a hit from the steroid scandal. Ratings and whatnot have been down for awhile...
Factor four, inflation plus baseball not capping salaries caused ticket prices to increase a fair amount.
Factor five, the players from the 90s leaving to get more money elsewhere destroying Dolans rep as an owner and getting his cheapskate reputation....
If you take all those factors in... I think you can see why attendance has dropped. I know when businesses left northeastern ohio, small community colleges took off since people were trying to find new jobs and new careers. Living wage in Ohio luckily isn't super bad, but it still hurt how often people hit the games