DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum On the Cleveland Browns and the price of continual losing.

On the Cleveland Browns and the price of continual losing: Tom Reed


CLEVELAND, Ohio – Monday Night Football returns to the lakefront in two weeks for the first time in six years.

The Browns host Baltimore, the city that stole their football team 20 years ago. Jon Gruden will be in the house. One of his favorite quarterbacks, Johnny Manziel, likely will start.

Everyone wants to be part of such a charged atmosphere, right?

"Since 1999, there has never been less demand for a regular-season game here," said Mark Klang, president of Amazing Tickets. "Tickets are going for preseason prices."

Come again?

"The Ravens game is creating about the same demand as the Packers preseason game (in 2011)," the local ticket broker said. "The game against San Francisco (on Dec. 13) is going to be similar. There's good demand for the Bengals and Steelers games but it's being driven by fans in those markets."

StubHub.com has $95 upper-deck, midfield tickets for the Monday night game going for $28. Upper-level corners with a $74 face value on the TicketMaster website are available for $15 on StubHub.

This is the cost of a 2-8 season when the Browns still have four home games remaining. It's the cost of 17 years of bad football and unfulfilled expectations.

A season ago, the Browns were 6-4 at this time and would have killed for a three-game home stand like the one that opens after the bye week. Now, you wonder about the enthusiasm level for a team that's lost five straight and shows no signs of bottoming out.

The Browns have dropped each of their last four games by 14 or more points and, according to Kevin Kleps of Crains Cleveland, that's happened just twice in franchise history.

"(We're) taking this opportunity to learn and understand the 'why' of where we are," coach Mike Pettine told reporters Monday after a 30-9 loss in Pittsburgh. "Being a 2-8 football team forces you to question yourself and question your methods."

Browns fans also are asking 'why? As in why should we invest financially and emotionally in this club for the remainder of the season?

The Steelers' loss was as embarrassing as any in recent memory. Pittsburgh receivers ran free in the Browns' secondary like it was a college game. Antonio Brown did a front flip into the end zone. No teammates confronted Jarvis Jones after an injurious and unnecessary hit to the head of Andrew Hawkins left the diminutive Browns' receiver concussed for the second time in less than a month.

You think former nose tackle Phil Taylor would have allowed such liberties to be taken?

All you need to know about the state of the Cleveland-Pittsburgh rivalry came in the response of Mike Tomlin last week when asked what the Browns' game means to him:

"It is a game that we face this week, to be honest with you," the Steelers coach said.

Fortunately for Cleveland fans, the Cavaliers' season is developing nicely. It might always be a Browns town, but a good chunk of young fans is gravitating to the NBA and the Cavs. And, why not? They boast the game's best player, an exciting and entertaining supporting cast and a team on a mission to end the city's championship drought.

"Thank God for LeBron," Klang said.

Browns fans ask for so little. It's hard to imagine another fan base anywhere willing to endure so much losing and dysfunction. It's the Stockholm Syndrome on a mass level 16 weekends in the fall. But the fans are a beaten-down group right now.

It's why these next three home games should matter so much to the organization. Pettine often talks of the "prideful" groups in the locker room. It's "words into action" time, coach.

The Browns already have made bank on tickets sold. Nobody loses money in the NFL unless your name is Modell. The apathy in the secondary markets, however, is telling and it should be troubling to the franchise.

A year ago, Pettine delivered meaningful late-season games to FirstEnergy Stadium. In another time maybe fans could tolerate a down season like this one. But when you coach and own the Browns you not only inherit the roster, you inherit the history.

"There is nothing that I want more for this team and for this city than to be successful," Pettine said Monday. "While I am still sitting in this chair, I am going to do everything I can to make that possible. Do these things happen overnight? It is difficult the way the league is set up to turn it quick, but nobody wants to hear that."

Not after 17 seasons. Not when you're about to play one of your biggest rivals on Monday Night Football and tickets are going for preseason prices.


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I wrote a letter to Pettine after the Raiders game. Told him I will no longer represent this team until the team represents me well as a fan each and every Sunday.

As a 24 year season ticket holder, I am sure glad I split my tix this year with friends. No more games for me.

Could the lack of ticket sales have something to do with the Ravens being so bad also?

This is the ONLY thing Alec, JH and the boys will respect. This is the only thing that can get things to change.

Curious what kind of change you think this will cause... Think JH is going to fire people? He's done that already. Think empty seats are going to make him magically be able to pick THE RIGHT guys for the job next time? Don't you think if he knew what changes needed to be made and who the right people were, that he would have hired them last time? Do you honestly think he bought this team just to make money and doesn't care if we suck?

Maybe the kind of "change" you would see is him sticking with Pettine and Farmer to try to give the continuity thing a chance to work for another year or two? Would you see that as change or would you see that as quitting and just making money?

Let's be honest, you have no idea WHAT change you want.. other than to win.. so whatever he does, if we start winning in the next year or two, it will have been the right move... at which point I guess you can credit the fact that there were some empty seats with having been successful...

I read it time and time again on this board that they don't care.. I think that's a load of crap. There isn't a person, from Haslam down to the waterboy, that doesn't WANT to win ...

What will empty seats and letters from disgruntled fans saying they will no longer financially support the team do? Maybe, just maybe it will light a fire of urgency in his belly and maybe he will go that extra mile and do that extra "thing" (whatever the hell that is), to find that person(s) who can correct the ship.