There has been a lot of discussion lately in the Toronto media, about the sparsely attended Blue Jays games at the Rogers Centre. Much of the discussion seems to have been catalyzed by a Chicago based columnist, who seems to have alienated the Toronto baseball media. Regardless of what has been written by anyone, the bottom line is that the Blue Jays,have fallen from the team right at, or near the top in attendance back in their glory years of 1992 and 1993, to near the very bottom this season.
This doesn’t mean that if the Jays improve, their attendance won’t get better. It probably will get better, but how much better is the key. With a base of about 3000 season ticket holders, Toronto has a long way to go to get that number to a respectable level. There are other factors, aside from the team’s poor performance, that have probably impacted the sale of baseball tickets. The Raptors came into existence in 1995, and now Toronto F.C. has become a significant factor, with consistent crowds of 20,0000 or so. With the discretionary entertainment dollars of the southern Ontario sports fans being stretched further, on top of what they may already spend for the Maple Leafs, and perhaps the Argonauts,the only way the Jays will get a surge in attendance, is if they were to get into the playoffs, or are in a playoff race after the All Star break.
Another factor that might impact Blue Jays attendance, is the fact that many consumers enjoy watching sporting events at home, especially so with the popularity of high definition TV screens. For many sports fans, the comforts of home and the savings from not having to park a car, buy food, and pay for tickets, are all incentive to only attend a game only once in a while, perhaps with a “free” ticket, if at all. When you add into this mix, the Jays not having been in the post- season since 1993, the nearly deserted Rogers Centre is not such a surprising sight. Unfortunately for Toronto, aside from the home opener, the only games that draw consistently good crowds, are those involving the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. Many of the fans who but tickets for those games, are out of town fans who are supporters of those marquee franchises.
There is only one professional team in Toronto, that is exempt from the function of winning, in order to sell tickets. That of course, is the Maple Leafs. For all the other teams, there is a direct correlation between performance and attendance. Being in the toughest division in baseball, with the big bucks of Broadway and the somewhat smaller spending Sox, makes the challenge for Toronto seem suffocating. At the end of the day, the question will be whether or not Rogers Communications, wants to continue to absorb the heavy cost of owning the Blue Jays. The team allegedly had lost $34 million ( U. S. ) each of the last two years. Blue Jays management and ownership are probably saying thank goodness for the New York Yankees and their luxury tax. If it weren’t for that, who knows if the Blue Jays would still be in Toronto ? Baseball isn’t dead yet in Toronto, and it may be revived, but the road ahead for the Blue Jays, figuratively speaking, has more than a few curveballs in it’s flight path.