International I Hate Sports Club

This week, our local paper has been running a series of articles soliciting reader comments about why fans have not been attending Cleveland Indians baseball games this year.

Um, hello? The unemployment rate in this region is among the highest in the state, gas prices are close to $4 a gallon, and people have to scrape by sometimes just to buy groceries and pay their mortgages -- maybe they don't have the money to flush down the toilet watching millionaires play ball? How can they even seriously ask this question?

Anyway, here's a link to the article with the responses -- it's kind of boring, as it's just about all sports fans who complain about lack of good players, etc., but I'm including it for some context:

http://news-herald.com/articles/2011/04 ... viewmode=3

One comment, though it's from a sports fan, stuck out to me:

It's like dating guys who hurt you â?? you keep giving them second chances and they keep hurting you over and over. It gets really old and after a while you discover being alone is better than falling in love and getting hurt. People are tired of being disappointed and angered, so they are staying away.

This pretty much sums up why I lost interest in sports in general -- tired of of being disappointed and angered, so I'm staying away!

So to sum up, I nominate the Cleveland Indians for another "Diaper-Butt Cry-Babies" award (if I may borrow one of Fat Man's phrases again!)

Here ya go, guys...congratulations!

ChrisOH wrote:This pretty much sums up why I lost interest in sports in general -- tired of of being disappointed and angered, so I'm staying away!

So to sum up, I nominate the Cleveland Indians for another "Diaper-Butt Cry-Babies" award (if I may borrow one of Fat Man's phrases again!)

Sure! Why not?

Go ahead! Feel free to barrow my euphemisms and phrases at anytime!

Knock yourself out!

The average price to buy an MLB baseball ticket is $26.00, so it doesn't have anything to do with money. The reason that the Indians are having a hard time selling tickets is simply because they're a bad team. Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati aren't having any problems with attendance.

Safety wrote:The average price to buy an MLB baseball ticket is $26.00, so it doesn't have anything to do with money. The reason that the Indians are having a hard time selling tickets is simply because they're a bad team. Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati aren't having any problems with attendance.

LIKE, WE GIVE A FLYING FUCK!!!

Fat Man wrote:

Safety wrote:The average price to buy an MLB baseball ticket is $26.00, so it doesn't have anything to do with money. The reason that the Indians are having a hard time selling tickets is simply because they're a bad team. Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati aren't having any problems with attendance.

LIKE, WE GIVE A FLYING FUCK!!!

Thanks for not contributing to the discussion in any way whatsoever... again.

Safety wrote:The average price to buy an MLB baseball ticket is $26.00, so it doesn't have anything to do with money. The reason that the Indians are having a hard time selling tickets is simply because they're a bad team. Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati aren't having any problems with attendance.

Well, when you consider that an average family is, what, four people, that would be $104 just for tickets alone. That's not including exorbitant parking fees, concession prices that are ridiculously high, etc., that average family will probably spend close to $200 on attending a game. Maybe that's not a lot of money to you, or to the millionaire/billionaire players and owners, but it's a hell of a lot in an area that never really recovered from the early 2000's recession, and was hit even harder by the recent "Great Recession".

So, I'd say it has quite a lot to do with money -- winning teams or not.

ChrisOH wrote:So, I'd say it has quite a lot to do with money -- winning teams or not.

That's just the average for MLB tickets. They're probably cheaper for the Indians, and you can buy tickets that are like, five dollars, but you would get bad seats. Cleveland's NBA team, the Cavaliers, are third in attendance right now and I know that it costs much more to attend an NBA game. The Cavaliers sucked this year, but they had the best record last year. Most of the tickets were probably bought before the season started.

Cavs are third: http://espn.go.com/nba/attendance

Indians are thirtieth, but the season just started, so that'll probably change: http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance

Browns are twentieth and they were just below average: http://espn.go.com/nfl/attendance

Safety wrote:

ChrisOH wrote:So, I'd say it has quite a lot to do with money -- winning teams or not.

That's just the average for MLB tickets. They're probably cheaper for the Indians, and you can buy tickets that are like, five dollars, but you would get bad seats. Cleveland's NBA team, the Cavaliers, are third in attendance right now and I know that it costs much more to attend an NBA game. The Cavaliers sucked this year, but they had the best record last year. Most of the tickets were probably bought before the season started.

I STILL DON'T GIVE A FLYING FUCK!!!

Then of course, there's Ohio State as well. Their average attendance is in the 105,000 range, and they can only seat 102,000.

Safety wrote:Then of course, there's Ohio State as well. Their average attendance is in the 105,000 range, and they can only seat 102,000.

TALK TO THE HAND!

BECAUSE THE HEAD'S NOT LISTENING!

To quote that eminent late 20th-century philosopher Rodney King: "Can't we just get along?"

Earl wrote:To quote that eminent late 20th-century philosopher Rodney King: "Can't we just get along?"

Oh! I'm getting along just fine!

But my hand is lonely and would like to have somebody talk to it!

I wasn't talking to Fat man anyways. I'm still waiting for a rebuttal from ChrisOH. The economy may have a little influence on attendance at sporting events, but not in this case. Cleveland sports are notorious for getting their fan's hopes up and bringing them right back down. The quote in Chris' post was a reference to that.

But I did hear that the Indians are doing well this year. It's not too late to jump back on the bandwagon

I'm not taking a side in this argument because I haven't even read any of the posts. So, I don't know what's going on.

Fat Man wrote:

Earl wrote:To quote that eminent late 20th-century philosopher Rodney King: "Can't we just get along?"

Oh! I'm getting along just fine!

But my hand is lonely and would like to have somebody talk to it!

*giggle*

Why, Mr. Hand, I'm surprised to hear you're lonely. After all, you are quite handsome.

Earl wrote:I'm not taking a side in this argument because I haven't even read any of the posts. So, I don't know what's going on.

Fat Man wrote:

Earl wrote:To quote that eminent late 20th-century philosopher Rodney King: "Can't we just get along?"

Oh! I'm getting along just fine!

But my hand is lonely and would like to have somebody talk to it!

*giggle*

Why, Mr. Hand, I'm surprised to hear you're lonely. After all, you are quite handsome.

That was 2/3rd of a pun! PU!

But thanks anyway!

Of course, my left hand, Lenny, is feeling sad, because of my fractured wrist, and poor ol' Lenny can't play the guitar anymore.

But since I'm left-handed, then I can't very well depend on Ralph, my right hand, to do much of anything either.

Safety wrote:The economy may have a little influence on attendance at sporting events, but not in this case. Cleveland sports are notorious for getting their fan's hopes up and bringing them right back down. The quote in Chris' post was a reference to that.

But I did hear that the Indians are doing well this year. It's not too late to jump back on the bandwagon

Like, Whoop-dee-fuckin'-doo!!!

Oh! Pardon me sir!

But, I do believe, that you must have some of us confused, with anybody here who gives a flying fuck!!!