CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – The Guardians won on opening day, beating the Chicago Cubs 4 to 1, but the economic impact extended well beyond Progressive Field as fans packed into bars and restaurants across downtown Cleveland.<\/p>\n
Bars near the stadium and across the city saw increased business as fans chose between staying close to Progressive Field or venturing to other neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
The Ohio Mayors Alliance reports bars see a 20% revenue boost on game days in Cleveland and Cincinnati.<\/p>\n
Fans choose between crowds and space<\/p>\n
East 4th Street, a short walk from Progressive Field, drew large crowds as fans moved between bars.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll these bars are just so close, bar hop bar to bar and have a good time,\u201d Victoria Nowak said.<\/p>\n
The crowd thinned significantly in Ohio City, farther from the stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can breathe, I can walk,\u201d Erica Riser said. \u201cEast Fourth and the Flats, it\u2019s fun, but downtown is just party party.\u201d<\/p>\n
Riser who sat outside of Great Lakes Brewing in Ohio City said she enjoys she knows people at the bar, even on a busy day.<\/p>\n
The Flats also attracted fans looking to avoid the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds closer to the stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cBetter option than East Fourth, where it\u2019s shoulder to shoulder over there,\u201d Greg Curts said.<\/p>\n
The Guardians bring in $221 million a year for Cleveland, while the Cincinnati Reds generate $250 million annually for Cincinnati, according to the Ohio Mayors Alliance. <\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 WOIO. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – The Guardians won on opening day, beating the Chicago Cubs 4 to 1, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2400],"tags":[84411,5,535,50,74840,4259,135,49358,84419,51,84148,71910,39035,84423,84424,84418,84412,84429,538,51695,48734,4,84426,84425,84420,84421,84416,667,84417,536,84422,84428,84427,84415,84414,84413,84410],"class_list":{"0":"post-662001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-reds","8":"tag-19-news","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-cincinnati","11":"tag-cincinnati-reds","12":"tag-cincinnati-reds-baseball","13":"tag-cincinnatireds","14":"tag-cleveland","15":"tag-cleveland-baseball","16":"tag-cleveland-game-day-revenue","17":"tag-cleveland-guardians","18":"tag-cleveland-guardians-opening-day","19":"tag-cleveland-news","20":"tag-cleveland-ohio","21":"tag-east-4th-street","22":"tag-east-4th-street-cleveland","23":"tag-east-fourth-street-bars","24":"tag-fox8","25":"tag-great-lakes-brewing","26":"tag-guardians","27":"tag-guardians-baseball","28":"tag-guardians-score","29":"tag-mlb","30":"tag-ohio-city","31":"tag-ohio-city-cleveland","32":"tag-ohio-city-restaurants","33":"tag-ohio-mayors-alliance","34":"tag-ohio-news","35":"tag-progressive-field","36":"tag-progressive-field-economic-impact","37":"tag-reds","38":"tag-reds-score","39":"tag-the-flats","40":"tag-the-flats-cleveland","41":"tag-wews","42":"tag-wkyc","43":"tag-wkys","44":"tag-woio"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}