If Dolan’s Build It, They Will Come

This column was first published on LandLoyalty.com on September, 9 2010.

Last week, my roommates from Chicago were in disbelief that the Indians and White Sox game, which was played during the day in the middle of the week, wasn’t televised.

It was the series finale, and they had been down for the first two games in the series, and had come back ripping on Cleveland fans for not showing up to Progressive Field. They thought that not televising a game indicated that Cleveland wasn’t a baseball town.

Now you can rip on Cleveland for a lot of things – but when it comes to sports, our fans are the most passionate of any in the country. I reminded my roommate of the ‘455’ that hands in the ballpark, commemorating the storied consecutive sellout streak.

“You guys were good then,” my roommate said. “You’re just a bunch of bandwagoners.”

If anything, Cleveland fans have proved to be the smartest by directly sending a message to the owners: If you build it, we will come.

If there is a product that is worth supporting, Cleveland fans will come out in flocks and spend dollars. If not, we’ll watch from the comfort of our homes and save our money. It’s not OUR money, so it’s easy to say as a fan, but spend money to make us competitive, and we’ll pay you back with ticket and merchandise revenue.

During Wednesday’s telecast of the Angels and Indians game, SportsTime Ohio commemorated the anniversary of the Indians winning the division with a win over the Orioles in front of a sellout crowd. That was a product worth associating with.

Cold weather or miserable teams coming to town would not stop 42,000-plus from entering through the turnstiles in the late 1990s. Those days are gone, and it’s simply because the Indians are not worth the price of admission. The Browns are the only team in this city, and on a short list nationally, that can afford the luxury of fiddling with mediocrity and still get people to come out to the games.

In those business classes that my roommate takes, you’re taught that you have to spend money in order to make money. Until the Dolan’s step up and put some more money into this ballclub, people aren’t going to show up and the games in September won’t mean anything and they won’t be televised. Once the orange helmets come out in Berea, the Indians are long forgotten.

Don’t blame us, the Cleveland fan, though. We have done all that we can.