Tale of Two Cities
By John Perrotto and John E. Sacco

It was the most depressing situation in baseball. The Cleveland Indians hadn't been to a World Series since 1954, participated in a pennant race since 1959 or finished higher than third place since 1968.

No wonder when moviemakers set out to cast the right team to portray the lovable losers that miraculously went from worst to first in the 1989 film "Major League", they choose the Indians.

Making matters worse is the Indians were playing in the game's worst facility.

Municipal Stadium and its 74,483 seats was considered a jewel when it opened in 1932, the biggest and finest baseball park in the land.

However, time was not kind to the place that eventually became known as Cleveland Stadium.

The stadium was bad for the fans with its small aisle ways and tiny splintered seats. It offered few amenities and stood alone alongside Lake Erie, removed from any night life in downtown Cleveland.

Things were so bad on and off the field that the Indians drew an average of just 13,135 a game in 1991 when the franchise bottomed out with a 105-loss season.

So, it was under those trying circumstances that John Hart was named Cleveland's Executive Vice President and General Manger Sept. 18, 1991 after spending two years as the Indians' director of baseball operations and serving as former GM Hank Peters' right-hand man. Hart was entrusted by owner Dick Jacobs with doing what seemed impossible – transforming Cleveland back into a winner and the type of baseball town it was back in 1948 when a then major-league record 2,620,627 poured through the gates during the Indians' last world championship season.

"So many bad things had happened to this franchise for so many years when I first came to Cleveland," recalled Hart, who left the Indians at the end of last season to become GM of the Texas Rangers. "I remember a lot of people around baseball being skeptical about the Indians ever being able to win. A lot of people thought it was hopeless.

"But I believed differently. I looked at Cleveland as a sleeping giant. There was once great tradition in Cleveland and I was always told it would be a great baseball town if the Indians ever started winning.

"I knew it wouldn't be easy to build a winner but, as an organization, we felt if we put a solid plan in place that good things could happen.

We knew if we stuck with the plan and were patient then good things would happen."

Fast forward 11 years and the Indians are undoubtedly one of the strongest franchises in baseball.

They have won six of the last seven American League Central titles, missing only in 2000. They also won AL pennants in 1995 and 1997.

But the Indians have also become a model franchise off the field. There has been no greater success story when it comes to selling tickets than the Indians since they moved into Jacobs Field, built in a then condemned area of southeast Cleveland, at the beginning of the 1994 season.

The Indians drew at least 3.3 million in each of the last six seasons, topping out at 3,468,456 in 1999, before slipping to 3,175,523 last year. They also put together an incredible string of 455 consecutive sellouts that started in June, 1995 and ended in the second game of the 2001 season. The sellout streak was a major-league record, more than doubling the previous mark of 203 by the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in Denver from 1995-99.

"It's been an amazing transformation," said Cleveland Vice President of Public Relations Bob DiBiasio, who joined the Indians' front office in 1979. "When you think of where we were 10 years ago to where we are at now, it's almost impossible to believe it's the Cleveland Indians we're talking about.

"Dick Jacobs and John Hart had a plan to get this franchise on its feet and it's happened both on and off the field. You would be hard pressed to find another story like this ever in baseball. I don't think anyone would have ever dreamed the Cleveland Indians would draw over 3.5 million fans in a season.

"But it's happened. It has been quite a story and I think we've built a situation many other organizations envy and would like to duplicate."

Often Imitated,

Not Duplicated

While the Indians and Cleveland have flourished with the advent of Jacobs Field, the Detroit Tigers are wallowing in a bad team and poor attendance. This all coming about in the third year of Comerica Park, which the Tigers moved into two years ago after leaving Tiger Stadium.

The club lowered ticket prices and changed to standard game times in the off-season to spur ticket sales.

The team got off to a miserable start, losing its first 11 games. Manager Phil Garner and General Manager Randy Smith were fired. On April 9, the team posted an all-time attendance low for a game at Comerica Park, drawing just 11,833.

The Tigers suffered a revenue dip of about $20 million in 2001 when attendance plummeted 600,000 from the prior year to1.9 million from 2.5 million in 2000. That decline tied a Major League Baseball record for the largest second-season drop off for a team playing at a new ballpark in the modern era.

It's now up to Dave Dombrowski, who became the Tigers' president in the off-season, to re-build the Detroit franchise and that includes putting people in the seats at Comerica Park.

The Cleveland Model

The Indians' plan was for Hart to so something radically different upon taking over the baseball operation. In an era when players rarely signed young players to long-term deals, Hart inked 17 of them to multi-year contracts in the winter between the 1991 and 1992 season. Among those who were signed included future stars such as Albert Belle, Kenny Lofton, Sandy Alomar Jr., and Charles Nagy.

At the time, it was considered almost taboo to give a multi-year deal to any player who had less than three years required for arbitration rights. The prevailing theory was it was too much of a gamble on the club's part to sign those players because they had to prove themselves and would constitute a bad investment if they did not pan out as hoped.

Hart, though, thought differently and saw singing youngster as a way to avoid arbitration and the invariable jumps in salaries that come with hearings.

The plans couldn't have worked any better. The maturation of the young players, combined with some shrewd trades and key free agent acquisitions, have helped to write one of the biggest success stories in baseball history.

Just as stunning has been the new public image Cleveland has forged with the success of the Indians and Jacobs Field. Once considered "The Mistake By The Lake", Cleveland is now one of the nation's most vibrant cities.

While winning always makes it easier to sell tickets, the Indians have done a good job of promoting the experience of coming to a beautiful modern-day ballpark in downtown Cleveland.

"It's more than just a game now," DiBiasio said. "People come here for a night out. They don't come just to watch the game and leave, like in the old stadium. There's so much more to do. It's such a more enjoyable experience."

Indeed, there is a festive area all around Jacobs Field and adjacent Gund Arena, home of the NBA's Cavaliers and the WNBA's Rockers, which also opened in '94.

Plenty of restaurants and bars have opened on the streets surrounding Jacobs Field. Two hotels have also opened within two blocks of the park over the past two years and an old building has been converted into a large apartment complex so Indians fans can live close to their beloved team.

"Building Jacobs Field hasn't been just about making the Indians a better franchise," DiBiasio said. "It's been about making Cleveland a better city. You don't have to walk very far in any direction to see the economic development and growth Jacobs Field has spurred in Cleveland.

It's revitalized the downtown area.

"More people are coming into downtown on game days than would ever be there before. When you have the Indians bringing 3.5 million people a year into the neighborhood, it's going to spur new businesses. People are going to want to open restaurants and bars and shops when they have that many potential customers.

"Everyone has benefited from Jacobs Field—the Indians, the public and the business section. It truly has been a win-win situation."

Detroit Shakedown

Louis Beer, a Clarkston, Mich., stadium consultant, said that he can't name a restaurant, hotel or retail business that has opened because of Comerica Park.

He said the Ford Field, the new home of the Detroit Lions to be opened later this year, has a built-in retail component. But as far as he knows, no leases have been signed and there is little interest in the space.

"Comerica is a huge site, about 12 city blocks," Beer said. "The Tigers often talk about it as an urban village. A lot of the restaurants that might have gone up around the park are actually within the confines of the plan.

"Really there isn't any natural or likely place for development. There's been a lot of talking but I don't see any significant development."

Beer said he can't make a case that the building of sports venues spur development. He said if a community has significant growth underway, a major marquee project can redirect some of that.

"You might change where more beer is sold," Beer said. "But for every bar that is selling more, you're probably taking away from a neighborhood bar somewhere. In most cases where these new parks or stadiums are built, the feeling is the city is downtrodden or underused.

Most times, it doesn't work. For every Coors Field, there's a SkyDome. "People will argue these things based on their preconceptions. I think in terms of a risk-reward calculation, there's a lot better ways to stimulate development than to build stadiums."

Reports surfaced late last month that the mayor's office and the city's law department have discussed with Mike Ilitch, owner of the Tigers and Detroit Red Wings the possibility of constructing a new home for the NHL team.

Apparently, tearing down Joe Louis Arena, where the Red Wings play now, and building more exhibition space there is one of four option being considered.

In the past Ilitch has expressed a desire to move the team to an arena in the entertainment district around the Fox Theatre and Comerica Park.

Ilitch is said to have purchased a significant amount of land behind Fox Theater, where Beer said there is little, if any, evidence of economic development.

John Perrotto covers baseball for the Beaver County Times. John Sacco is managing editor and covers baseball for PSR.