Unless a friend has a last-minute change of heart before Friday’s deadline, the Browns are losing a season ticket holder.
My guess is I’m not the only one.
According to Browns’ records, I bought two seats in 1988. It was just after my time covering the beat for the Dayton Daily News was interrupted by an in-office assignment producing a Sports Weekend section. After about a year and a half, I was back covering the games and I sold the tickets in front of the press box in Municipal Stadium (view-blocking steel poles and all) to those close to me.
In the new incarnation of the Browns, I never used my two Dawg Pound seats, seven rows from the field. They have been purchased by a former Dayton co-worker who shared them with another. I marveled at the former’s dedication.
Although it was a four-hour drive each way to FirstEnergy Stadium, the man took his son and considered it valuable bonding time and great fun, despite the colorful new phrases they learned each game and the poor product they watched on the field.
But reluctantly, the man and his son are calling it quits. They’re not giving up on the team, just the travel and expense. For the son, the issue was time; for the father it was a decision to find more affordable sporting events for himself and his grandchildren, likely the Class A Dayton Dragons baseball team.
The one-sixth of the $1,304 owed the Browns by Friday will probably go unpaid.
I thought an old neighbor in Louisville, Ky., would be interested, and he was at first. This is the same medical professional who was upset while serving in the Middle East that he was constantly outvoted for the one NFL game the Armed Forces Network showed each Sunday. He wanted to follow the Browns that desperately, even in the face of war.
Back when the Browns were more competitive, he would drive 5½ hours to Cleveland on Saturday, spend the night in a suburban hotel and drive home after the game.
When I offered him the tickets, he wanted to wait to make sure the Browns cut Johnny Manziel. Then when he learned of the seat location, the vantage point was apparently too low for him.
Others I’ve asked who might want them to pass out to clients apparently feel the same way. The Dawg Pound is not as rowdy as it used to be — the two times I sat there in the ’80s I have no idea what liquid was rolling down the aisles in the fourth quarter — but a seat there might not be considered a business perk.
I wonder if it would be different if the Browns hadn’t drafted Manziel. I wonder if it would be different if they had signed some of the four free agents they let go, or even one, with my preference being right tackle Mitchell Schwartz. The departures of Schwartz, Alex Mack, Travis Benjamin and Tashaun Gipson reminded me of a comment from former Browns coach Bill Belichick, who said players in the fourth through sixth years of their careers are the heart of your football team. Those are the players the Browns just let walk.
I have no problem with the Browns cleaning house if new coach Hue Jackson has determined it must be done to create a winning culture, but it might take two or three drafts to fill the holes they’ve created. And that’s providing they draft well, which hasn’t been synonymous with the Browns since they picked Clay Matthews and Ozzie Newsome in the first round in 1978.
I’ve said for the past two or three years that if fans want to let the team know they’ve had enough of the ineptitude on the field and in the front office, they need to stop buying tickets. When that subject was discussed on The Golden Boyz on ESPN 850 Cleveland on Monday afternoon, some responded that the best fans in the country can’t be that disloyal. But leaving early in the fourth quarter isn’t enough to make a statement.
I’ve kept the tickets all this time so it would be easier for my friends to attend when the good times returned. I’m sure I could have tried harder to find a buyer. But I can’t bring myself to beg people to take them when it seems like the Browns won’t be a playoff contender until 2018.
Even though I haven’t used them since the ’80s, I must admit there was a sense of excitement when they arrived on my doorstep, sometimes in a box with Browns coffee mugs or a football. It was the harbinger of a new season, a season that held promise.
At least it used to.
Perhaps in the next couple of days, a friend — or a friend of a friend — will feel that promise, place faith in the new regime and commit to paying the $1,304. While it’s possible that the Browns can hit on all 10 picks in the April 28-30 NFL Draft and start back on a path to respectability, I’m torn on whether I want anyone I know to fork over that amount, even in six easy installments.
I feel their pain of following the Browns for a lifetime and I share their reluctance, no matter the reason.
Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at www.ohio.com/marla. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.