The Guardians have found something bigger than a good gate number. They’ve turned Progressive Field into a place people want to be, not just a place to sit and watch nine innings.
That was the point Terry Pluto and host David Campbell kept coming back to on the latest Terry’s Talkin’ podcast after Cleveland topped 2 million fans for the third straight season. Pluto said the Ballpark Pass has helped fuel the surge, giving fans a cheaper, more flexible way to move around the park and take in the game from different angles.
“I think a lot of this has been helped by that Ballpark Pass that they have, where you walk around the ballpark and you pay $68 or whatever it is,” Pluto said. “I think the price changes for whatever month you’re buying it and you can just watch the game from different spots.
“They’ve made that a gathering place, and I give them a lot of credit.”
Cleveland’s 2,001,414 fans this season put the club in rare company, even if the number sits well below the totals from the franchise’s biggest crowds. Since 2003, the Guardians have cleared 2 million only a handful of times: 2007, 2008, 2017, 2024, 2025 and 2026.
The full list looks like this:
2007: 2,275,916
2008: 2,102,087
2017: 2,048,138
2024: 2,056,264
2025: 2,051,360
2026: 2,001,414
Even with the season not yet over, the larger picture is clear. Over the last three seasons, Cleveland has ranked 20th, 21st and 20th in MLB attendance, and the leaguewide average team draws about 2.3 million.
That makes the Guardians’ turnout more notable in context. Cleveland is the smallest market with teams in MLB, the NFL and NBA, yet it is still bringing in roughly 2 million fans - about 21st in baseball - year after year.
Campbell tied that trend to the way teams are now selling the ballpark experience to younger fans. In his view, clubs are leaning into the idea that a game can be a social setting as much as a sporting event, especially for people worn out by dating apps.
“People in their 20s are getting sick of dating apps, apparently, and they want to meet people in person and kind of in real-life scenarios instead of ‘swipe left, swipe right,’ ” he said. “And the Guardians have been on this for the last several years, like how they made like sports bars up in the upper deck where the ‘box cars’ used to be.”
Other teams have pushed the same idea even further. Campbell mentioned the Mets and Cubs, who have offered ticketed “Singles Nights” with hundreds of seats set aside for younger single fans.
Pluto took the conversation in a more philosophical direction, citing C.S. Lewis and the idea that “the best friendships form around a shared thing - a hobby, a trait, a common love.”
A ballpark, he said, naturally gives people that common ground.
“If you run into somebody, if they wanted to go to a game, they probably at least have a passing interest in baseball,” he said.
He also pointed out something simpler: a ballpark feels like a safer public space than a bar or a dating profile. It’s a place where people can show up, move around, talk, and see whether a connection is there without all the pressure of the apps.
Pluto described a friend who goes to games with her girlfriends, walks around the park, takes photos and sends them. For him, that kind of experience is part of the shift in how fans use baseball now.
And it’s a long way from the way he used to go to games with his father.
“The days of, like, when my dad took me to the game and you bought a program for a quarter and they gave you a little golf pencil to go with it, you sat in your seat and kept score,” Pluto said. “I mean that’s over.”
In Other News...
Guardians Survived A Wild Royals Fight And Kept Control Of The Central
The Guardians walked into Kauffman Stadium and found plenty of resistance from the Royals, but they still left with a 12-9 win and their grip on first place in the AL Central intact. It was the kind of game that had swings throughout, with Cleveland answering Kansas Citys punches and getting important production from Angel Martinez, David Fry and Jose Ramirez to stay in front of the division race.
Gavin Williams did not have a smooth night on the mound, which only added to the tension in a game that kept changing hands. Cleveland will have to keep sorting through the pitching side as the series moves on, with Michael Wacha and Tanner Bibee scheduled to face off in the next game and another chance for the Guardians to protect that narrow lead. [Read more 🡒]
Chase DeLauter Gives Guardians Fans One More Reason To Believe
Chase DeLauter has given Cleveland plenty to like in his first full season in the majors, turning his 2026 campaign into one of the brighter developments in the Guardians lineup. After debuting in the 2025 postseason, he has settled in as a central piece of the offense, leading the club in batting average and OPS while staying on the field for 131 games. For a team that has leaned on steady production all year, his rise has become one of the clearest reasons for optimism.
Now the Guardians are heading toward a familiar late-season question: can they hold onto first place in the AL Central and line up an ALDS berth? If they do, DeLauter will be back in the October spotlight for his second playoff run, but this time with a full season behind him and a much larger role in what comes next. For Cleveland, that combination is exactly the kind of young-core momentum that can make a postseason path feel a little more real. [Read more 🡒]
Guardians Bullpen Depth Just Put One Reliever In A Tough Spot
Connor Brogdon cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Columbus after being designated for assignment by the Guardians, a move that quietly underscores how much bullpen depth has changed around Cleveland in recent weeks. Brogdon had spent the first six weeks of the season in the major league relief mix, but injuries pushed most of his year back into the minors, leaving him in a difficult spot as the roster has gotten healthier and more crowded.
Brogdon will stay around the organization for Cleveland's stay ready camp now that the minor league season is over, which gives him a chance to keep working while his immediate role remains unsettled. He is also expected to become a free agent this offseason, so the next stretch may be less about finding a lane with the Guardians and more about proving he still belongs in the picture somewhere. [Read more 🡒]