Cleveland Indians: The lazy attendance narrative is dead

Cleveland Indians fans have been packing Progressive Field all season, putting the lazy narrative about the lack of attendance to rest.

It is a known fact that national media outlets outside of Cleveland love to poke fun at the city and its sports teams. Whether it be through montages or by having David Ross sit in on a Sunday Night Baseball broadcast, it never seems to end.

Real quick, what was that about? The Indians are in the midst of a great stretch and we have to listen to David Ross? Is Steph Curry going to announce some Cavs games this year?

Anyway, another point people outside of Cleveland love to bring up is attendance. After 455 consecutive sellouts to open the park, attendance has never been the same in the past 15 years.

It was common in both 2013 and 2016 to see countless seats empty as the team was chasing down a playoff spot, and no matter what the TV ratings said or how the team did, some always cited the attendance as some dark mark against the entire city and fan base.

That narrative is slowly beginning to fade away in 2017 as fans are making it down to Progressive Field in droves, already eclipsing the 1,000,000 fans mark through 45 home games, according to ESPN’s attendance figures.

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The average per game is 23,229, but fans must remember that the max capacity is right around 35,000, so the average is always going to be lower than what is capable in other ballparks.

The lowest numbers in terms of attendance this year are just above 14,000, which happened four times this season. All were weekday games in April and May.

Painfully negative people can still say the team isn’t selling out every game, but does that really matter? If fans are packing the lower bowls and just not sitting all the way in the top corners, why is that such a bad thing?

Other stadiums may be packed to capacity, but if people are sitting in seats where they can barely see, that doesn’t sound much better than the situation at Progressive Field where it may not be packed to the brim, but it is still loud and everyone has a great view.

Next: Indians draft recap

People outside of Cleveland will always try to find a way to bring us all down, but the best course of action is just to ignore it. This city is filled with great fans who have started to bring back a great atmosphere at Progressive Field that has been missing since those great 90s teams.