Cleveland Indians owner Paul Dolan said today that the club continues to disagree with MLB on the subject of its racist logo, noting that they hope to find a “middle ground” soon.
Commissioner Rob Manfred hinted during Cleveland’s postseason run last year that he would begin talking to the team about their use of Chief Wahoo during the offseason, and he confirmed in January that he’d begun meeting with ownership about discontinuing the logo. But while the league has called those meetings “productive,” they haven’t been productive enough to lead to any action. (Though, amid all this, MLB has decided to go ahead and award Cleveland the 2019 All-Star Game.) Today, at a local radio station’s speaker series, Dolan said that the team and the league remain at odds on the question of whether it’s okay to commodify and profit from grossly racist caricatures.
“We’re not exactly aligned on its future,” Dolan said about the logo, as reported by the Akron Beacon-Journal. “But we will come to some understanding some time relatively soon, meaning before the start of the 2018 season and maybe sooner than that.”
He went on to say that the club is “trying to find the right balance” with using the logo and hopes that they will be able find a “middle ground” with MLB.