The Cleveland Indians sold out their April 11 Home Opener in just three minutes, the reality is with season ticket and the pre-sale advantage it affords there weren't a lot to start. Selling out Opening Day is nothing unusual for the Tribe but its usually their last sellout until the 4th of July this year may be different.
"We have sold over 1.2 million tickets," said Curtis Danburg Indians Senior Director of Communications. "We did not hit that mark until July 4th last year so that just puts in perspective kind of where we're at from a ticket standpoint."
Last year the Indians may have been number one in the American League but they were number 28 out of 30 teams in Major League Baseball in attendance. The team drew 1.59 million fans or 19,650 a game. In fact for the last five years they've either been 28th or 29th.
Making the World Series drove season ticket sales to their highest levels since 2008, which was the year after the last time the Indians played for the American League Pennant.
"We're seeing great demand for summer weekends," said Danburg. "The lower bowl's pretty much sold out for all Friday, Saturday and Sunday games during the summer months."
Winning is an attitude and the team is hoping playing in front of larger home crowds will have an impact.
"We have a huge competitive advantage when this place is rocking. We were 23-11 last year with attendance over 20,000," said Danburg.
Don't think because the Indians are reigning American League Champs that there aren't deals to be had when it comes to tickets.
"If you're an educated consumer you can find great deals and really it's about buying your tickets in advance, you can get a bleacher ticket in the teens, we've got the KeyBank kids ticket," he said. "Remember so many fans don't realize you can bring food in the ballpark and you can bring in bottled water, it has to be a sealed cap. So if you come prepared you can come at a great value."
