Cleveland Guardians: Weekend doubleheaders would boost attendance

Implementing traditional doubleheaders allows the Cleveland Guardians to boost attendance, as they can sell the experience of being at Progressive Field.

Cleveland’s attendance hasn’t ranked better than ninth in the American League since 2002, which is retroactively insane to think about given the team won just 74 games. Since then, the Guardians have drawn more than two million fans throughout the season four times.

This season proves to be no different, as they currently rank 13th out of 15 AL teams, drawing an average attendance of just 14,278 fans. A countless number of words exist on published websites, through airwaves and via conversations trying to crack the code of Cleveland’s attendance issue. Frankly, in a football town that shows out for winning teams, the Guardians simply need to generate conversation to get fans out to the ballpark.

Picture this: it’s sunny in downtown Cleveland with a slight breeze off Lake Erie occasionally cooling down fans settling into their sun-drenched seats. It’s about ten minutes before a 1:05 first pitch, and you’re already halfway through hot dog number one. The Guardians play through their first game and win (obviously) so the energy around Cleveland is high.

Everyone with their ticket from the first game cycles around the ballpark, trying out a few new treats and maybe stopping by the gift shop. Boom, a few thousand dollars more to the team. There’s a 30-minute break before game two and the shadows of the light fixtures are creeping toward second base and center field. A few more families made their way down to Progressive Field to catch the 5 pm game, so those popcorn lines are a little longer.

Great, the Guardians have attracted more fans, garnered more buzz around the team and kept people at the stadium spending money and time with the ball club. Tampa Bay, another team desperate for higher attendance, tried this out in 2017. More than 31,000 people showed up to watch a team sitting just over .500 on that Saturday in June.

There’s no reason the Guardians shouldn’t be able to replicate this success at least a few times during the regular season.

Luckily for Cleveland, it can rely on the fact that scheduled doubleheaders are incredibly rare in the modern era of baseball. That simple novelty draws people out to the stadium on its own. One ticket, the price of one for the exposure to two games. What a deal in the city of Cleveland.

Marketing teams are always trying to think outside the box on how to gain more support and recognition for their brand. Once implemented, the possibilities for additional deals or promotions are endless. It’s the area where you can appeal most to the younger generation while appeasing the older crowd with the prospect of an entire day spent at the baseball stadium, just like when they were younger.

It creates an atmosphere, making Progressive Field a day-long attraction, somewhere to be. Baseball is in the entertainment industry after all, and regardless of the performance of the Guardians on the field, the opportunity for fan engagement off the field is massive.

It doesn’t solve the entire attendance problem that Cleveland has. I think recent history demonstrates that football trumps all, and baseball will always be a passive second or third in this town. But allowing for traditional doubleheaders, the ambiance of spending your entire Saturday or Sunday at the stadium, nose filled with fresh grass, hot dogs and peanuts, is absolutely sellable.