A New Lease On Life For Cleveland Baseball

The Indians (Guardians) are not going anywhere anytime soon. The club and city announced on Thursday that they have inked a 15-year lease to stick around at Progressive Field and there's a lot of money involved in the deal as well, $435 million to be exact.

Good news arose in Cleveland Thursday as the team announced a new lease for the ballpark, Progressive Field. The contract is worth $435 million and it is with the City of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County and additionally, the State of Ohio.

Thus, we will have baseball in Cleveland for the next decade and a half at least. Additionally, the team will use this money in various renovations for the ballpark. These include focusing on the Terrance Club, upper concourse amongst other parts of the park that was built in 1994, 27 years ago.

Moreover, simply having a baseball team in Cleveland is crucial. Yes, there is obviously the aspect of fandom and having a team to cheer on. Everyone in Cleveland knows what it is like to lose a beloved team…

However, there is another aspect to this that is also big. The fact that there will be at least 81 home games a year improves the Downtown Cleveland economy ten-fold.

Restaurants, hotels, casinos and the various entities within the ballpark itself. All of these will help make for a better area moving forward.

The Indians are currently 52-53, which is 9.5 games behind the Chicago White Sox for first place in the AL Center. Additionally, the team is seven games back in the Wild Card Race. 

Obviously, chances for success are looking extremely break for the Indians this year. However, one can only hope that there will be plenty of excitement and contention throughout these next 15 years moving forward. That will make this lease well worth it.

Fans were worried a name change from Indians to Guardians could signify that the team was subsequently moving locations. Well, that will not be the case. Enjoy many more years of Cleveland Baseball with this new lease.