Although the ticket promotion is not well known in area circles, Indians vice president Bob DiBiasio said the "Lunch and Three Innings" program is proving to be popular with downtown business workers wanting to eat lunch and watch part of a noontime major league baseball game.
View full sizeDale Stewart fans out 250 tickets for the Cleveland Indians and Toronto Blue Jays baseball game at Progressive Field on July 1. Stewart bought the tickets through a program called "Lunch and Three Innings." Stewart was waiting in advance for five busloads of kids from the West End YMCA program in Willoughby. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- As a senior vice president at KeyBank in downtown Cleveland, Lisa Leemans will sometimes take an extended lunch hour.
One of her favorite spots is not in a restaurant. It's Progressive Field.
Lunch at a major league baseball game?
"It's a great idea," said Leemans, a 47-year-old Sheffield resident. "I work downtown. I can walk to a nice venue and take a longer lunch hour while watching part of a game. It beats eating lunch at your desk."
It's a deal the Indians promote as "Lunch and Three Innings," an idea Vice President Bob DiBiasio said the team has had for three years but is not widely known. A $15 ticket purchased for a noon home game gets you an upper deck seat and $10 credit -- it's a bar code located on the ticket -- towards the purchase of lunch at any Progressive Field eatery.
"Maybe we don't promote this enough," DiBiasio said, "but it has been popular with business people and some people who just want lunch included with their ticket. And we won't kick you out of the park after three innings."
DiBiasio said the promotion is unusual in that only one other team in baseball has the same program -- the Cincinnati Reds. Other small market teams with losing records like Pittsburgh and Kansas City have not tried the program.
Thursday, when the Indians hosted the Toronto Blue Jays, was the fifth "Lunch and Three Innings" game this season. There is another scheduled Sept. 1 when the Tribe plays the Chicago White Sox.
Of the 3,065 tickets the Indians sold on game day Thursday against the Blue Jays, 1,250 were for the "Lunch and Three Innings" promotion, DiBiasio said.
Leemans, who said she saw the promotion last year in an ad, said she goes to the games with co-workers. She uses her $10 credit towards a hot dog and a soda, saying "You can't go to a baseball game and not have a hot dog with Stadium mustard."
Like most business attendees, she will stay about 1½ hours before returning to work -- although she said last year, when she worked at a different bank, she took her whole department for the entire game.
Dale Stewart, 25, youth director of the West End YMCA, used the same promotion to bring day-camp kids to the game Thursday. He purchased 250 tickets, only to discover he needed 19 more.
"The kids love it here, and it's a good way for us to reasonably afford to take that many of them to a baseball game," said the Willoughby resident. "You're basically paying $5 a ticket."
Don Haselow, 58, came up from Salem to watch the game. The truck driver and Cleveland native had no idea the Indians had the promotion, but took advantage of it when a ticket seller suggested the purchase.
"I guarantee you I'll stay for more than three innings," Haselow said. "I'm an Indians fan, it's a beautiful day, and I didn't even expect the lunch that comes with it. What a deal!"