CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Talkin' about football, which is less than a month away ...

About Browns fans

I called Alec Scheiner, the Browns team president. I had two very conflicting pieces of news.

1. Dick's Sporting Goods announced that Joe Haden had the best-selling jersey in the NFL since the draft. Or at least, the best in its stores. Browns safety Donte Whitner ranked No. 10.

2. The Emory University Sports Marketing Analytics released a study that Browns fans ranked No. 31 out of 32 teams in terms of passion and support for their team.

I asked Scheiner how the off-season business was going in terms of fan interest.

"I'm continually amazed by the passion and enthusiasm of our fans," he said. "Did you see what happened with our scrimmage in Columbus? Sixty-thousand fans signed up for it in one day ... 60,000! We had to cut it off."

The team will play its Orange & Brown scrimmage at Ohio State's Horseshoe Stadium on Aug. 7. The Browns had a larger crowd than expected for its June 6 Fanfest event at the Cleveland Convention Center. The same for the event where the new uniforms were unveiled. Both drew crowds estimated at 4,500.

"The day we revealed our new logo, we had the (most hits) in the history of our website," said Scheiner.

Interest in the team remains high, despite the 7-9 finish. Of course, that was the best Browns record since 2007. It's been tough following the orange helmets.

We're Number 31?

But people still do, regardless of what Emory University insists. The study came to my attention from an article by Joe Ginley on Dawgs By Nature, a very good Browns site. The study is by Manish Tripathi, "assistant professor in the practice of marketing." This is not to question his credentials, or even his methodology. His goal was to rank the "most avid, engaged, passionate and supportive" fan bases.

But he did it by looking at revenue -- how much fans spend on their team in terms of tickets, etc. The moment I mentioned that to Scheiner, he said, "That explains it. Our ticket prices have been among the lowest in the NFL. I bet Buffalo is down there, too."

The Bills were No. 28. Does anyone doubt Buffalo loves the Bills? It's always 10 below and they watch their team. But like Cleveland, ticket prices have been modest in NFL terms.

"Was Dallas No. 1?" asked Scheiner. Yes, the Cowboys were tops. I asked Scheiner to guess the four other teams. He named New England, the Giants, the Jets and San Francisco. He only missed Baltimore being in the top five.

"I went with those who had the high ticket prices," Scheiner said.

The top 10 are Dallas, New England, N.Y. Giants, Baltimore, N.Y. Jets, Chicago, Green Bay, New Orleans, Indianapolis and San Francisco.

The bottom five? The authors of the study wrote this: "At the bottom we have the Bills, Jags, Raiders, Browns and Dolphins. There are some interesting and storied teams on this list. The Raiders have a ton of passion in the end zone but maybe not throughout the stadium.

"Cleveland may have never recovered from the loss of the Ravens, and the re-creation of the Browns. Florida is almost always a problem on our lists. Whether it is the weather or the fact that many of the locals are transplants that didn't grow up with the team. Florida teams just don't get the support of teams in other regions."

Browns ticket sales

Scheiner said the Browns have sold about 60,000 season tickets, up from about 50,000 in 2011.

"The stadium holds about 67,000 fans so we do have individual game tickets available," said Scheiner.

The Browns did raise ticket prices for this season. For some fans, it was a significant boost.

Here is part of a letter they sent to season ticket holders: "As you may notice with your enclosed invoice, ticket prices have changed for the 2015 season. We are one of only three NFL clubs that have kept prices flat for the last six years and our average ticket price in 2014 was second lowest in the league. While other teams have not announced potential changes yet, we are confident that our ticket price averages will remain among the most affordable in the NFL."

The fact that fans have purchased 60,000 season tickets in some form screams that this area remains excited about the team, despite the miserable history on the field. Several fans emailed me to complain about the rise in prices and said they were "quitting" the Browns. But apparently enough still signed up to watch the team again.

Of Buffalo, Jacksonville, Oakland, Cleveland and Miami -- it's clear the Bills and Browns don't belong on that dead end list. I've maintained for decades that no matter how much appreciation those running the Browns have for the fans, it's not enough. The loyalty for this team defies any logic, given the move, the return, the losing and all the frustration.

About jersey sales

Here's the top 10 jersey sales since the draft according to Dick's: Joe Haden, Odell Beckham, DeMarco Murray, Peyton Manning, Andrew Luck, Jameis Winston, Marcus Mariota, Tom Brady, LeSean McCoy and Donte Whitner. Haden was ranked No. 16 by Dick's in its last survey before the draft.

"That shows how fans have embraced our new uniforms," said Scheiner. "We were the only team to change uniforms this summer. I'm really glad Joe is No. 1 because he is such a great representative of the team and the community."

A year ago, Johnny Manziel had the No. 1 selling jersey after the draft. It was Johnny Football Mania. Rookie quarterbacks Winston and Mariota are on the list.

Scheiner sent me some information from "Fanatics" on the sale of Browns jerseys. Here are their rankings: 1. Haden. 2. Joe Thomas. 3. Manziel. 4. Whitner. 5. Brian Hartline.

Hartline is new to the team. Like Whitner, he is an Ohio State product and played high school football in Northeast Ohio. Whitner was at Glenville, Hartline at GlenOak.

About the stadium

Scheiner said Phase Two of the stadium renovations are coming in "on time and on budget." Phase One was with the outside and the huge new scoreboard. The latest changes are more with the concourse, graphics and concession stands. You can check out the changes here.

Since Jimmy Haslam took over as owner, he has been trying to find ways to make FirstEnergy Stadium look like something more than a waiting room at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Okay, that was my hyperbole, but from the moment the stadium opened in 1999, it has been faceless.

I thought last year's upgrades helped a lot, it did give the stadium more flavor.