Do We Need New Ownership?

"Dolan Is Cheap".  "Dolan needs to sell the team".  "You had a great team that made you money on in 2024.  You need to invest that money to make your team better in 2025."

We have read and heard some variation of these quotes for, literally, years in Cleveland.  

First it was the Yankees who we HAD to spend money to keep up with.

Then it was us trading our free agents-to-be because we knew we couldn't sign them.

Then it was the Dodgers.

And, most recently, comparisons are starting to come up regarding what Cleveland is doing compared to its competitors in the AL Central and that we are not even keeping up, talent-wise, with them.

So do we need new ownership int Cleveland?

My short answer is NO and here are the reasons why:

• Owning a baseball team in Cleveland is an acquired taste.  You have to be able to understand that opening day is a sellout and the second game in that opening series could have 10,000 people at it.  
• You have to understand that the Browns can go 3-14 but there will likely still be more conversation in the media and on social media about them than about the Guardians.
• You have to understand that the 455 is a thing in the past and that it will take a lot to get fans that excited about their baseball team...and it may never happen.
• You have to know that winning the Yankee way is impossible in Cleveland and that, like it or not, you have to play around the edges and hope your stars align...every year!
• You have to know that your best stars are likely going to want to play in bigger markets and that it's OK, just like it's OK if you trade those stars before they walk as free agents, even if the fans hate you for it.
• You have to know that investing in the best free agents is beyond your means, based on what revenue you are making in this small market.
• Finally, you have to understand that getting your subordinates to work under these conditions AND be successful is nearly impossible so any amount of money you have to invest to keep them here, you invest.

To be the owner of the Cleveland Guardians is to live with the idea that putting a good product on the field every year is the victory, not winning the World Series.  It's to excel when mediocrity is the annual likely outcome and it is that you have to give your team resources to do what they need to do without giving resources to do what the fans want them to do.  It's about trusting your people, staying out of their way, especially in public, and being the wallet that feeds the engine of this organization.  It is about never skimping where it really matters: amateur talent acquistion, trade acquitisiton and, especially, player development.

While I would love to have the deep pocket ownership groups in NY and LA, it has been well-documented that those teams bring in revenue at a pace that will never happen in Cleveland.  

Would I like to have an owner who will throw money around like it is nothing?  Sure.  But that isn't going to happen.

While he is far from perfect, Paul Dolan is an owner who gets the realities, is not frustrated by then,  that can survive in Cleveland and, in fact, under his leadership and that of his executives, thrive in their professional league.   That's something that the 3-14 Browns can't currently say, is it?