man, i don't know about cleveland but milwaukee has all that pretty well covered if you try. you can either take a free(ish) shuttle from any of a number of bars or park on the side streets in the neighborhood just north of the stadium and walk down and either find someone you know or make a new friend in the parking lot and bum some beers and hot dogs off of them, most people bring extra - a lot of people just go for the tailgate. your ticket is free that you got from someone who works for a nonprofit because they dump tickets on nonprofits. suddenly an overpriced beer or two at the stadium is no big deal.
really, i don't understand why everywhere doesn't tailgate properly.
Those free tickets generally dry up when you start getting REALLY good or actually, you know, win a WS. Sucks.
Not going to see more games has nothing to do with ticket prices. It has a little to do with team performance, although I am fine with watching a rebuild.
The biggest reason I don't see more games is, transportation costs, be it parking, the train, or uber/lyft. AND the price of beer and food!!! Holy crap if you want to eat and drink at a game $$$. You want to take your family, forget it, easy 200 bucks, you can do a lot with that type of money. Even if you go with your buddy and just want to drink , you could spend 70 dollars just on booze/beer.
MLB, draft beer is cheap man! Hook it up! I can go see the Frontier league or MiLB teams and get 2 or 3 dollar beers all day long, and no one is drunk and out of control anymore than at MLB games.