Posted on 10/02/2022 5:20:07 PM PDT by Impala64ssa
The Cleveland Guardians have ridden a dominant pitching staff to a division title, their first since the 2018 season.
They’re also an exciting team to watch, with the youngest roster in Major League Baseball that averages just over 26 years old.
They’ve had an outstanding second half as well, going 42-24, which puts them just behind the Houston Astros for best record in the American League.
None of that has helped attract more fans Guardians home games.
This has been a season long issue in Cleveland, extending past attendance into struggles with local television ratings.
At the time, some defended the low attendance figures by saying they weren’t a particularly good team. In theory, that would go a long ways towards explaining the dramatic drop in support.
But it’s hard to play much better than 42-24, clinching your division with several weeks remaining in the season.
That success hasn’t helped matters much.
With six home games left, all against the Kansas City Royals, Cleveland ranks 25th in Major League Baseball in attendance, averaging just 16,819 fans per game:
This sits below even the Reds and Tigers; two moribund teams eliminated from postseason contention months ago. Not to mention the Chicago White Sox, who faded from contention early on.
While the average per game does represent an improvement over their midseason figures, it’s only been a slight increase.
As of late July, Cleveland was averaging 15,025 fans per game, meaning their push towards the playoffs in the second half has resulted in just an 11% increase in season attendance.
Compared to the 2019 season, even the 16,819 figure represents a 22% decrease, despite the 2019 team missing the playoffs entirely and finishing eight games behind the first-place Minnesota Twins.
It’s also well behind the over division winners; the Dodgers lead the league with nearly 48,000 fans per game, the Yankees rank third, Houston seventh, St. Louis second, with the Braves and Mets also in the top six.
While those are larger markets, outside of St. Louis, it’s still a tremendously poor showing for a team that exceeded expectations and easily won their division.
An important Sept. 19 game against the Twins drew just 12,168 fans. Even the most attended game of the series was just 24,449, far below Progressive Field’s capacity.
So if poor attendance isn’t due to poor performance, it certainly seems possible that fans are still upset about the name change enacted before the season.
The history and connection between the organization and fans was developed as the Cleveland Indians, which was mostly unceremoniously discarded when political pressure became too much for team ownership to handle.
There may be other possible explanations, but with many of the previous excuses; i.e. poor weather, or mediocre on-field play falling by the wayside, it seems one of the more likely reasons.
That said, with a home playoff series in Cleveland rapidly approaching, there should be more visible fan support shortly. The Guardians will host all three potential games of a Wild Card series against a to be determined opponent, with any of the possible matchups set up to create an exciting series.
But if even those games don’t sell out, it will raise even more questions about the future of fan support for the Guardians franchise.
The Leftists propagandists like to cite the name change in order to blame the former fans as being racist and to cover up the real reason.
Major League Baseball teams, who play a very American sport, went woke and aligned themselves with people who hate Americans and American ideals. They aligned themselves with Communist organizations such as Black Lives MatterTM and accused Americans of false racism.
Bring back the bean ball and the spit ball. They deserve it.
Good riddance. They might as well be the Cleveland Syphilitics or the Cleveland Clap for all anyone cares.
What are they guarding?
Funny they got rid of the lame blue/teal uniforms and went back to red, white and blue uniforms bullets wore back in the ‘70s and ‘80s when Wes Unseld won a championship. You gotta keep traditions and colors intact with your fan base otherwise how are they going to identify with the team? It’s part of being in the same tribe. Yeah but we have morons in charge of our sports leagues now.
You mean the Cleveland Indians?
In the years between Hurricane Andrew and the inception of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, my town hosted the Cleveland Indians every spring training, and I had two home plate seats. Even after becoming a diehard Rays fan, I still had a soft spot in my heart for the team I had watched in spring training for a decade. It’s hard to care as much about a team named for a bridge statue.
Well done, Cleveland fans.
I know I’m never going back.
That what the organization gets for changing the name for no reason but some activist said so.
And only White Liberals care about these things, real Native Americans couldn’t care less.
Typical White Behavior: Remove the Indian, Keep the Land!
the Tribe farts in their general direction...
Are you serious?
The plan at that time was to gentrify the area after the stadium was completed but that was going to take a hell of long time. Imagine a neighborhood where armed police were assaulted on the street in the daytime, where civilian workers who had to park at lots within walking distance of USCG HQ were frequently reminded to wait until a group was formed before attempting to leave or return to the parking lot, where USCG personnel routinely wore sidearms when working after dark.
I kind of suspect gentrification is still an ongoing process near the stadium which may have something to do with attendance.
Now that’s funny 😄!!!!
proud of them
Oh dear!!
Some Texas Jewboys music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AH_Owld5UI
(Too lazy today to make it clickable).
Maybe they will bring back 10 cent beer night?
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