Indians TV Ratings Sky High Among All of MLB, Set to Wrap Up 4th Straight Season in the Top Three

For the fourth straight season, fans of the Indians are tuning into watch games at an almost historic rate, making them a huge draw on STO/Fox Sports Ohio. The Tribe trails just one team for the top spot in MLB, that being the St.Louis Cardinals, but despite the high ratings the team likely will need to purge the roster again in 2021 with no fans in the stands in 2020.

Indians fans didn't get a full season worth of baseball in 2020, but that's not stopping them from watching their favorite team nightly on Sports Time Ohio.

Today Crain's Cleveland wrote about the Tribe's 2020 television ratings, and once again the team is putting up huge numbers against just about all of Major League Baseball. 

Through Labor Day, Sept. 7, the Tribe's average rating on SportsTime Ohio was 7.07. The norm was the best in MLB and represented an 8% increase from the Indians' 6.55 ratings average in 2019.

Last season, the Tribe's ratings norm was the second-best in MLB, finishing just shy of the St. Louis Cardinals' 6.6 average. Going by the percentage of games played, the Indians' 2020 average is 19% ahead of the ratings norm at the same point in 2019.

It would be the fourth straight season that the Indians would wrap up the season in the top three, a number that isn't anything to sneeze at.

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Sadly, while fans are watching on TV, this season at least none of them are allowed in the ballpark, and when they are the team just isn't the draw it was back in the 90's.

Last season when all was normal in the world, the Indians finished 21st in Major League Baseball in attendance. 

They averaged 22,008 per night in their 81 home games at Progressive Field. With a massive loss of income in 2020 not having the money from fans in the park, likely the team is going to have to deal or say good-bye to some high-priced players this offseason.

Carlos Santana, Brad Hand, Francisco Lindor and who knows who else may be off this team's roster next year.

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It likely won't stop fans from tuning in, but it's a shame when it was possible that it didn't translate to having more fans in the ballpark.

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For more from Matt Loede, follow him on Twitter @MattLoede. Follow CBI on Twitter @IndiansonSI