Great Lakes Relocation?
Two organizations, not at all alike in dignity, in fair Ohio, where we lay our scene. While the story of the CBA may not read like a Shakespeare play, the demise of Great Lakes Monsters attendance would certainly qualify as a tragedy. The reasoning for empty seats at Lake Place by Hertz in part can be drawn to the initial placement of two teams in in the state of Ohio. While it did support two MLB teams fairly well, the Buckeye state has really let the Monsters down.
For the inaugural season, it appeared that the smaller-city Cincinnati Royals would play second fiddle in the state, as they won eight less games and housed around 97,000 less fans for the season than the Monsters. Since then, as the fortunes of the two franchises have turned, the Royals became “Ohio’s team,” while the Monsters have morphed into the weird uncle that you pretend not to know when in public.
It’s hard to blame Ohioans for their love of Cincinnati baseball, they are having one of the best seasons in professional sports history, while Great Lakes is in a seemingly never ending rebuilding phase. It’s probably very hard for the people of Ohio not to want to support the greatest show on grass. Because of the distance between the two cities, it’s also possible that the Monsters’ decline in attendance is more heavily performance based.
Decline in attendance, poor performance, and the revelation that team Majority Owner Roberto Pinet reportedly does not like the city of Cleveland spells trouble for the future of the team. “I don’t want to talk about moving this organization. Right now we are focused on the draft and what we can do to improve the 2028 Great Lakes Monsters,” Pinet said bruntly in his owner suite.
General Manager Quinn Grant was more open to discussing the possibility, “To be honest, I don’t know what’s next for this team. I do know that the CBA administration rightfully makes it difficult to move an organization, so we wouldn’t really have a case yet. I would love to see this team bring in more revenue in order to boost our operating budget. Mr. Pinet has said that all options are on the table to do so.”
Where the Monsters’ future lies remains up in the air, but one league insider mentioned that the CBA administration would be more lenient in allowing a team to move to Canada, in hopes to strengthen the league’s international spread. The team would also likely wear different uniforms according to Grant, “In a purely hypothetical situation where we relocate, I would push for a rebrand. Growing up in Baltimore, I have heard many horror stories about the Colts moving away. I was extremely glad that the old Browns organization left their history in Cleveland. We would probably follow in their footsteps and allow a future Cleveland organization to reclaim Great Lakes’ baseball history if they desire.”
Both Grant and Pinet emphasized that the Monsters are Cleveland’s team for the time being, but neither pledged permanence. Many factors could change the narrative; a quick rebuild, attendance improvement or a sale of the team, but as of right now, the feeling around the team offices is that a relocation could be on the horizon.
