The Columbus Clippers are in the International League playoffs this year (up 2-1 against the Indianapolis Indians in the best of five series) and while that might not be big news on the national level, their approach to making the games more interesting was.
During games three and four of the five game series against the Norfolk Tides, the Clippers saw their attendance numbers drop from a season average of 9,016 per game (third highest in the IL) to below 3,200 in both games. Citing their strong regular season numbers and not wanting to exclude the fans who had supported them to this point, the Clippers did the opposite of what most teams do in the playoffs – they lowered ticket prices. Not just a couple of bucks lower – the Columbus Clippers offered every seat in the house for free for every single remaining game in the postseason.
The first game this plan went into action for was the deciding game of the semi-finals against the Tides and 10,735 packed Huntington Park to see the Clip Show win 5-0 behind Mike Clevinger’s 7.2 no hit innings. This was Clevinger’s first AAA start after a great season in AA and he was pulled because of a strict pitch count.
Without a day off, the Clippers then had games Tuesday and Wednesday for the IL Championship against the Indianapolis Indians and they continued their offer, “selling out” both games early in the day with 11,408 attending on September 15th and 11,894 on the 16th. In addition to the ticket offers, the Clippers brought back all their food promotions from earlier in the season including dime-a-dog and the well fed and not particularly less well off fans were entertained by two more Clippers wins.
At the same time, the Clippers’ parent club, the Cleveland Indians, were also looking at possible playoffs, but didn’t generate quite the excitement. Taking on the best team in the American League, the Kansas City Royals, the Indians drew just 10,356 on Monday, 10,516 on Tuesday, and 11,103 on Wednesday. Three days in a row, the AAA Clippers outdrew the Indians.
Making the matter more extreme, the Indians won two of the three games and returned to .500 for only the second time since the first series of the 2015 season. Thanks to the Rangers’ dominance of the Astros, by the third game they had moved to within four games of the second Wild Card. In addition, most of the better players from Columbus had already been called up to Cleveland. Recently, bullpen aces Shawn Armstrong and Giovanni Soto came up as September call-ups. More importantly, back in June the Tribe stole the Clippers’ Gold Glove quality left side of the infield in Francisco Lindor and Giovanny Urshela.
The roster the Clippers are fielding is almost completely made up of AAAA quality players that many baseball fans may be familiar with, but probably aren’t important enough to really wonder where they are now. Blue Jays fans interested in Shaun Marcum and Dustin Molleken? They are in Columbus. Carlos Marmol, Michael Choice and Ryan Rohlinger are there too, as well as some Indians players who just haven’t panned out including Zach Walters, who hit for the cycle in Thursday night’s game. Just two hours away on I-71, the Clippers are fielding a completely inferior lineup to their near contending Major League affiliate, yet the fans are flocking in.
Baseball in Ohio isn’t dying out. In addition to the Clippers, the RubberDucks of Akron are in the top half of the Eastern League (AA) in attendance at 5,013 and the Dayton Dragons (Reds) are over double the average Midwest League (A) team at 8,212 per game. The Indians, however, are the second lowest drawing team at the Major League level, bringing in just 17,923, a number that appears to be dropping after every game. Whether it’s the competition from the Browns (Cleveland really is a football town and obviously cares more about the sport than the success rate), high ticket prices (although they are already among the lowest in baseball), or dissatisfaction with ownership (that has spent millions to retain the services of Cy Young winner Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, Jason Kipnis, and Yan Gomes) there is a major problem with attendance in Cleveland.
Photo by Kevin Gall (@KGall216)
