The Cleveland Indians are, at least in one little way, measuring fan support of their longstanding but highly controversial (and offensive) Chief Wahoo logo.
As noted at HardballTalk, the team has sent out a season-ending survey to fans who have registered with the team website or who have purchased tickets there. One of the questions asks, “Please rate the extent to which you agree or disagree with the following statements in regard to the Indians’ Chief Wahoo logo.”
The options, with the standard five-choice scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree, are as follows:
• This logo reflects the heritage of the Indians;
• I feel a strong positive emotional connection to this logo;
• This logo makes me proud of the Indians;
• This logo represents more than the team – it represents the city of Cleveland; and
• This logo is an important part of my support for the Indians
As pointed out in the HardballTalk article, this is only one element of the survey. The exact same questions (with the same answer options) are asked about the Block C logo and the Script Indians logo. So it’s not like the franchise is going out of its way to specifically collect information about the controversial Chief Wahoo logo, but it’s also not going out of its way to not collect information about the logo. If that makes sense.
SPECTOR: Indians' name will have to change eventually