Cavaliers fans clamoring for wine-and-gold colors

Beacon Journal poll indicates loyalists want team to return to original tones

By Chris Tomasson
Beacon Journal staff writer

Cleveland Cavaliers

Even Mark Price couldn't put up this kind of percentage.

Price, the NBA's all-time leader in free-throw shooting, drilled 90.6 percent of his attempts in his Cavaliers career. But that's nothing compared with the 94.2 percent of Cavs fans in one survey who want the team to return to the original team colors of wine and gold.

The Cavs held a recent Internet poll, asking fans to vote on six options for new team colors. Wine and gold, originally worn from the team's inception in 1970 through 1983, was not listed on the Internet site as a precise option.

Separately, the Beacon Journal invited e-mails from fans to see what they want. It was a landslide.

In the unscientific poll, 81 fans voted for the wine and gold, while only five voted against it.

Those five may now know how George McGovern felt.

"I would like to see a return to the wine and gold,'' wrote George Kramer of Stow. "The Cavaliers need to stop listening to those overpaid marketing experts and listen to the fans. It would be refreshing it they did that.''

Well, the Cavs are sort of listening to the fans.

Option 2 on the Internet site was a red, gold and black combination that looks a bit like the wine and gold.

Not surprisingly, it was an easy winner in the Beacon Journal poll.

Option 2 got 68 percent of the vote, followed by Option 1 (blue, orange and black) at 12 percent and Option 6 (gold, black and two shades of blue) at 8 percent.

The Beacon Journal also invited e-mails from fans on whether they like the current blue, black and orange uniforms. A resounding 88 percent said no.

Voting concluded in the Cavs' Internet poll last Friday, however team president Jim Boland said no results will be released until the latter part of the month.

In their quest to have new colors by the 2003-04 season, Boland said the Cavs are "considering all options,'' including wine and gold.

But Boland did not appear swayed by the Beacon Journal poll.

"I'm disappointed it didn't have a bigger response,'' he said. "It would have been great if it had thousands. It would have been more of a statistically valid sample.''

Boland said some of the options in the Cavs poll had colors "similar'' to the wine and gold. Many of the fans did not believe the colors were close enough.

Todd Lillo of Norwalk likened it to "having a poll in Graceland as to who the greatest entertainer of all time is and your only choices are Lisa Minnelli, Red Buttons, Yahoo Serious and Charles Nelson Reilly.''

The wine and gold was eliminated when brothers Gordon and George Gund bought the team from Ted Stepien in 1983. The team switched then to blue, orange and white.

Fans have a say

Some fans pointed to the Gunds as a reason why precise renditions of the colors weren't on the ballot.

"I often wonder whether Gordon Gund or any of his management team has taken a sports marketing class or has any training in this area,'' wrote Justin Dublikar of Canton. "They just don't seem to get it. They just don't seem to get Cleveland, Ohio, and its sports fans.

"There is a reason why Cleveland fans get goosebumps when they see an orange helmet or a brown football jersey. There's a reason why we love the Chief Wahoo face on baseball caps. There's a reason why we cringe and sigh every time the Cavaliers bring out another new uniform style or color scheme. Cleveland fans love tradition.''

Donald Kacmar of Aurora expressed similar sentiments.

"Hey Gund brothers,'' he wrote. "Don't be embarrassed by our history. Embrace it, and the fans will too. The wine and gold represents both good (the Miracle of Richfield in 1976) and bad (the Stepien ownership years from 1980-83). But they're our colors, and that's our history, for better or worse.''

Bingo Smith and Jim Chones, Cavs stars from the wine-and-gold years, both said last week they believe the Cavs should return to those colors.

Both said they often meet fans who want to return to the wine and gold, although both said such comments usually come from older people.

But the Beacon Journal survey didn't necessarily reflect that. Several respondents who called for the wine and gold made a point of saying they're not old enough to remember when the team wore the colors.

"Chones expressed his belief that most people who support the return to wine and gold are in their late 30s or older,'' wrote Joseph Carino, 24, of Cleveland Heights. "I understand how this could discourage Cavs management who, through recent trades, are seemingly trying to sell their product to a younger generation. But I find this assessment to be inaccurate.

"Admittedly, my assertion is based solely on talk among friends and fellow Cavs fans. But most are in favor of just such a change... My friends and I are the young, single people who have the time and money to spend watching the Cavs at Gund Arena.''

Eddie Ristau, 25, of Fairview Park, agreed.

"(My) groups of friends are all huge Cavs fans,'' he wrote. "We are all about the same age and we all want to see the wine and gold back.''

So some older fans want the wine and gold to return, and so do some younger fans.

So who doesn't want it back?

Well, there were the five who voted against it. And none of their last names is Gund.

Ben Flieger of Lakewood and Bob Woods of Wadsworth both voted no, but both picked Option 2. Craig Kimpel of Canton said he would "dislike seeing a color change'' because he recently spent a "considerable amount'' of money on a Cavs leather winter jacket.

Brian Merrick of Wadsworth may have cast the ballot that Cavs' management likes the most.

Merrick did not vote for wine and gold, and he also gave great praise to the organization.

"Just the fact that the Cavs are trying to change their image around the league is encouraging,'' Merrick wrote. "Giving the fans a chance to vote on the colors is a great P.R. move.''

While a great majority of comments were negative, that might not be completely unexpected since the team has had four straight losing seasons and attendance has dropped more than 25 percent since the Cavs played their first season in Gund Arena in 1994-95.

Many fans called for the team to go back to having "Cavaliers'' rather than "Cavs'' written on the uniform.

Many also called for a return to the team's original logo, which depicted a swashbuckling Cavalier. Boland said the Cavs are likely to also change their logo, and that a man with a sword hasn't been ruled out.

One thing is for sure -- the fans don't think much about the Cavs merchandise that is currently available.

"While the net logo is merely pointless and bland, the introduction of black to the blue and orange around the beginning of the Gund (Arena) era consistently gives the Cavs some of the worst merchandise in the NBA,'' wrote Charles Nicklow, a former Akron resident who now lives in San Francisco.

What the Cavs currently wear at least appears better than one of the options in the Cavs' poll. Option 4, which displayed red, black, gray and two shades of blue, did not receive a single vote in the Beacon Journal poll.

Messages for Chris Tomasson can be left at 330-996-3826 or ctomasson@thebeaconjournal.com

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