Now even though people aren’t going to the stadium to take in the games, that’s not the only way to gauge fan interest in the team. The Indians are experiencing a jump in TV ratings, according to Cleveland.com ratings are up year over year for June with a 74 percent increase.
Crain’s Cleveland is reporting a 43 percent for the season compared to last season at this point
On the season, the Tribe’s average rating of 5.87 on SportsTime Ohio marks a 43% year-over-year increase and is 49% ahead of the Indians’ 2015 season norm of 3.93. In July, the average rating is a whopping 8.5, which is five points ahead of the July 2015 average of 3.5. For comparison’s sake, the Cavs’ 2015-16 ratings norm, the best in Fox Sports Ohio history, was 9.31.
People buy from people they like, and the people have demonstrated they don’t much like the way the Dolan’s do business. On top of the pace of the game being slow and for some not exciting, there’s not much to entice fans down the stadium in regards to the game that fans are familiar with. However, let’s give the team credit for what they’ve done to the ballpark to combat some of the down times. They have great quality food options; a dedicated kids zone area, giveaways and fireworks, and dollar dog nights. So they are trying to make the experience at the ballpark a fun and inviting place to be, the only thing left to do is to field a consistently winning baseball team. At the end of the day, everything else comes second, what happens between the win and loss columns is all that matters. You keep fielding a winning team and everything else will take care of its self.
*Last Indians player of note to play with the team for 8 years, Asdrubal Cabrera, Cliff Lee, and C.C. Sabathia.
