Jays attendance & TV ratings soaring!

[LittleOzzy]

The Toronto Blue Jays are last in the American League East, but their fans still love them.

Credit convergence as the Jays buck a trend by showing a strong growth in attendance for their home games while most other teams are in decline.

In fact, the Blue Jays are leading all major-league clubs at the gate with a hefty 56.5-per-cent increase in attendance through their first 11 games at the Rogers Centre when compared to the same period last season.

That represents a hike of 8,655 a game, which gives Toronto an average attendance this season of 23,978, although that still ranks in baseball’s lower echelon.

Not only are the Blue Jays attracting more fans to their games, the national TV viewing audience has also experienced a healthy jump to an average of 541,000 a broadcast, up from 437,000 last season.

Returning home to begin a four-game series Friday night against the Detroit Tigers, the question now is if the Blue Jays will be able to maintain the fan interest if they continue to struggle on the diamond.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/b ... le2011967/

[Back2back2back]

[Randle McMurphy]

I wonder how high the ratings would be if Rogers actually spent the money to make the team good.

[evilRyu]

tonight's attendance: 19,711

[spykelee]

I would really love to see a full post game show on a night in and night out basis. Not this we'll fill until the 3 hour mark and then get to connected right away...

I would think it should be very similar to leafs and raptors posts, even if only for 30 minutes. It'd be real easy to have 1 camera man go into each teams dressing room and get some reaction, you'd have your coaches press conference each and every game, maybe bring the radio guys onto the set for a segment, even bring in the opposing announcers to talk about all things division or baseball. I just don't get hiring Zaun, building a nice new set at the rogers centre, owning the team and broadcasting each and every game, having 4 channels (3 of which could broadcast connected) and then using your post game show only as filler... The jays are getting good ratings this year, people are interested... seems like a no brainer to me.

[evilRyu]

yeah i'd watch a post-game show!

Speaking of which, does *anybody* know where I can find any footage of post-game interviews with players? They seem to do that with every sport, where journalists ask player questions after the game. I'm assuming players are interviewed after games, but where can I find any video/audio for these? For example, hearing Lind's post-game comments or JPA's would be nice..

[ItsDanger]

Wow, we only averaged 15000 last yr? Didnt realize it was that bad. Thats what you get for overpriced concessions and parking.

[Randle McMurphy]

I would really love to see a full post game show on a night in and night out basis. Not this we'll fill until the 3 hour mark and then get to connected right away...

I would think it should be very similar to leafs and raptors posts, even if only for 30 minutes. It'd be real easy to have 1 camera man go into each teams dressing room and get some reaction, you'd have your coaches press conference each and every game, maybe bring the radio guys onto the set for a segment, even bring in the opposing announcers to talk about all things division or baseball. I just don't get hiring Zaun, building a nice new set at the rogers centre, owning the team and broadcasting each and every game, having 4 channels (3 of which could broadcast connected) and then using your post game show only as filler... The jays are getting good ratings this year, people are interested... seems like a no brainer to me.

You work at Rogers, right?

Get 'er done.

[spykelee]

I would really love to see a full post game show on a night in and night out basis. Not this we'll fill until the 3 hour mark and then get to connected right away...

I would think it should be very similar to leafs and raptors posts, even if only for 30 minutes. It'd be real easy to have 1 camera man go into each teams dressing room and get some reaction, you'd have your coaches press conference each and every game, maybe bring the radio guys onto the set for a segment, even bring in the opposing announcers to talk about all things division or baseball. I just don't get hiring Zaun, building a nice new set at the rogers centre, owning the team and broadcasting each and every game, having 4 channels (3 of which could broadcast connected) and then using your post game show only as filler... The jays are getting good ratings this year, people are interested... seems like a no brainer to me.

You work at Rogers, right?

Get 'er done.

If only it were that simple...

[flatjacket1]

I wonder how high the ratings would be if Rogers actually spent the money to make the team good.

Makes me wonder too.

They would make a dollar on every penny they spent on a big name free agent. Imagine signing CC or Fielder? Last year I argued with a friend about how Rogers would easily be able to outbid for Crawford or Lee and cover it with attendance alone.

[satyr9]

Wow, we only averaged 15000 last yr? Didnt realize it was that bad. Thats what you get for overpriced concessions and parking.

I don't know this for a fact, but I think the figures used were for the first 11 games only not the whole season. Jays pick up some better crowds once it's actually summer. If I remember last year it was the home opener and a bunch of like just horrifyingly small crowds (like 8k-10k small) in the first few series.

Now, if they fall way off pace I doubt you'll see this kind of an increase remain, obviously, but there will be an uptick this year and I think the big increase over the start of the year is indicative of a bunch of fans just waiting to come back. The band wagon in TO is enormulously humongerous and with all the teams in the shithouse it's really a race to see who can get good first. A few are coming back based on faith that the first good moves will eventually lead to a good team, but I think if they ever start competing in August and beyond you'll see just a wave of fans showing up. I know the few times that's almost happened there wasn't much to support my idea, but just anecdotally from my experience there are a ton of people out there who would re-become Jays fans if they were actually competitive. Course that's just me, not like I've got anything to back it up.

[Geddy]

I'm surprised that they have had decent crowds so early in the season considering where the team is at.

One thing I have noticed is a lot more people sporting Jays hats, tops and jackets around town these days.

[DonYon]

the double A effect ladies and gentlemen

[LLJ]

Hopefully these fans' long-term faith in them is rewarded. I don't think anyone expected them to be really good this year, but we have some good pieces in place. Though I do think we're actually still underachieving a bit so far. Maybe I'm wrong.

[Schad]

Hopefully these fans' long-term faith in them is rewarded. I don't think anyone expected them to be really good this year, but we have some good pieces in place. Though I do think we're actually still underachieving a bit so far. Maybe I'm wrong.

We're pretty much where I'd have expected before the season, and possibly better than I'd have thought given our injuries/absences; today marks the end of what has been about the most brutal schedule in the league. It's looking like another 79-83 win season is in store.

On attendance, hopefully this cements the idea within the organization that there's serious upside in marketability, if we put a team out there that's competitive.

[torontoaces04]

I wonder how high the ratings would be if Rogers actually spent the money to make the team good.

7 months and not much has changed.