Cleveland is not only doing better on the field this season, fans are watching again:
The Indians reached one million tickets sold three weeks ahead of 2010. Single-game ticket sales are up 84 percent over last year, and, in May alone, fans bought 142,000 tickets, compared to 63,000 for the month last season.
Since Opening Day, the number of season tickets has jumped to 8,100 from 7,000 — although still much lower than the club would like. Advance sales help teams budget, plan and weather, well, bad weather.
TV ratings, the highest since 2007, are up 136 percent in May from a year ago, enabling STO to raise ad rates 50 to 100 percent. STO, which is privately held by the Dolan family, pays a rights fee to the Indians to broadcast their games, but cable revenue does not go to the team. The Indians and STO declined to disclose rights fees and cable revenue.
Ballpark concessions sales are up 18 percent, and merchandise sales at the six Indians team shops are running about 60 percent higher than last year, with huge surges the past two weeks. With what seems like a different hero coming through each night, the club has scrambled to keep up with demand.
All this means is that come July, the Indians will have the extra revenue to plug holes for the stretch runs. In a year where attendance is down, this is great to see.
It has been a cold, rainy spring here in Ohio. Just saw a statistic that here in Toledo alone we are 3+” above normal for the month, 8 & 2/3″ for the year. But at least it has been warming up.
The team will need to sell a lot more tickets, beers and merch if they want to be buyers. The Dolans don’t use the TV money to supplement the team. They use TV money to offset their loses.
So, in short…if MLB made sure that EVERY team had a winning record, attendance numbers solved, boom! Easy.
Alex Hayes » Of course not. Fans give teams passes, they understand that teams can have down years. It’s constant losing that drives fans away.
David, I was just being sarcastic, obviously it would be impossible for every team to be above .500!
Alex Hayes » Sorry, of course!