CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cleveland Indians are back home at Progressive Field.
Russ Mengle enters the Wild Eagle Saloon, getting the place ready for opening during a challenging time for the business.
“It’s been a challenge. I mean, we did some remodeling when the COVID thing started and then once that ended is when we had the unrest down here, so obviously, we took some damage from that,” said Mengle, managing partner at Wild Eagle Saloon.
With Indians players and staff returning to the ballpark this week, fans won’t be joining them — another hit for businesses like the Wild Eagle Saloon.
“At the end of the day, it’s an event-driven downtown environment, so we need, you know, whether it be Indians or Browns or concerts, that drives our business down here.”
Bars outside of Progressive Field would normally be packed this time of year. But with no live games, that might be a little bit of a challenge. But that doesn’t mean bars and restaurants aren’t getting creative to create a gameday atmosphere.
"We want to kind of give back to the people that want to come down here and see a game and kind of give them that home opener atmosphere that we, you know, have thrived on over the past four years," said Mengle.
Mengle says he plans on creating a baseball theme at the saloon for fans to come and watch games when the season starts, while also playing bocce ball, and cornhole.
Indians President Chris Antonetti hasn’t ruled out seeing fans this season.
"I think that’s really going to be up to the state of Ohio. And they have to kind of give us some guidance on what they might be comfortable with and then it would be up to us to adapt a plan that we can do that in a safe way,” said Antonetti.
And even without fans, Mengle still thinks there is an opportunity to safely get fans to bars and restaurants, when the umpire finally yells “play ball.”
“You know, being born and raised in the area, I think Cleveland fans like to be close to it," said Mengle. "Even in the past, you know, during the playoffs when the Cavs won the championship, there was 100,000 people down here watching a game, the game that was happening in California. So I think that will kind of prove that people will want to be down here, even if the game is, you know, not have the ability to have fans, they’ll want to be close.”
Baseball is almost back, but the new season at the ballpark, will be unlike any we’ve seen before.