The Dolans are not the issue when it comes to the Cleveland Guardians

The Dolans get a bad rep as owners of the Cleveland Guardians.

The Dolans have run the Cleveland Guardians very successfully since taking over in 1999. They’ve gone to the playoffs eight times, which in baseball, until recently, was very hard to do due to the minimal amount of playoff spots. They’ve been to the World Series once and the ALCS twice. For a small-market team, that’s pretty good.

Yet, the Dolans have this narrative, mostly driven by sports personalities as a way to excuse the lack of fan interest, that they’re “bad owners”, who “don’t spend”. Except those people constantly fail to realize that no sports owner pays their own money to a sports team. Not voluntarily.

The Dolans are constantly demanded by fans to spend their own money on the team to increase spending, yet that same fanbase won’t go to the games. They don’t spend money on merch. They complain on Twitter about how the Dolans “never do anything”, but fail to realize that it’s the fanbases of the team that create a team’s payroll. It’s why the most popular teams, with the best attendance figures, have the highest payrolls.

But don’t you dare blame the fanbase, that’s heresy. Unless you live in Tampa Bay.

See, I don’t mind that the Dolans and Chris Antonetti run the club as they do. I know that Cleveland isn’t a baseball town, they haven’t really ever been. Sure, for like seven years in the 90s they were, but that’s it.

The team is always doing the best they can, and somehow always competing and that’s pretty dang impressive when you realize that they were 22nd in attendance the year after they went to the World Series, which was also the year they had their highest payroll ever.

Clearly, winning and spending money doesn’t get fans into the ballpark as so many want to claim. The fact is, the Dolans know they don’t have the budget to fund this team like they were the Dodgers, and fans are mad about that.

The Cleveland Guardians are better off because of the Dolans

Yet, the Guardians produce. They win. They’re in the playoff race every year. They haven’t had a rebuilding season in earnest since 2012. Fans are being spoiled and are taking this run of Guardians baseball for granted.

Chad Young, of SBNation (no relation), wrote about the three things that he thinks an owner needs to do to be great.

"To me, the owner of any operation has three jobs:Provide whatever value you can, while knowing your own limitsHire the best people you can to run your organizationStay out of their way."

He goes on to say;

"Besides, any baseball economist can tell you that there is no worse return on an investment than a free agent. When you sign a free agent, you are usually just hoping the first years are good enough to make up for the last years, which are probably going to be a huge waste of money. The Dolans have hired smart people, enabled them to find talent, provided the cash to sign young players to long-term deals, and stayed out of the public spotlight while the front office does its job….Since Dolan took over the team in 2000, the Indians have developed and traded for some terrific young talent (Victor Martinez, Carlos Santana, Grady Sizemore, Jason Kipnis, Asdrubal Cabrera, CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee, and more). The team has finished first or second 6 times and have never finished in last. The organization has had the kind of stability the Browns and Cavs can only dream of.And honestly, I am not sure what more you can ask of an owner."

And he’s absolutely right. The Dolans aren’t just the best owners in Cleveland, it’s not even a debate. The Cavs LOST money the year they won a championship. They owed so much to the NBA, that they didn’t even make a profit that year. Not too mention how long it took them to build a good team without LeBron James. The Browns are owned by Jimmy Haslam and, well, that’s all that needs to be said.

The Guardians may not “spend money” like they were the Dodgers, but they also don’t have a fanbase as avid and rabid as Los Angeles. They do great work with what they have and instead of perpetually being pissed off that the financials of baseball make it so teams like Cleveland get screwed over, be greatful that this is a well run, well organized club that is constantly able to compete.