RealGM

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/attendance

The bluejays have had a pretty good season so far, but fans aren't coming out to support. I mean the jays get huge crowds but only usually when the Yanks, BoSox, Phillies are in town-and thats mainly fans from those teams. Maybe the numbers will get better in July/August but right now were below teams like Washington, Baltimore, Kansas City etc.

Does Toronto not like baseball anymore?

Fans are sick of the past years of mediocre, unmotivated baseball. This year has been the most gritty, fan worthy team that Jays have had in years...unfortunately...years of crap will affect things.

Duffman's right, and not just about the refreshing taste of Duff. You can't expect 15 years of failure to be undone by one great month and then a few months of average ball.

Moreover this is a difficult year to read because of the bad economy. Just because people aren't going out to the park doesn't mean that they're not paying attention. I've watched the majority of games but I haven't been to one yet.

youngLion wrote:Duffman's right, and not just about the refreshing taste of Duff. You can't expect 15 years of failure to be undone by one great month and then a few months of average ball.

Moreover this is a difficult year to read because of the bad economy. Just because people aren't going out to the park doesn't mean that they're not paying attention. I've watched the majority of games but I haven't been to one yet.

I think thats a pretty weak excuse, I mean, teams like Washington and KC are drawing more fans and those two have been bottom dwellers while we have at least been competitive the past few seasons. Using our results as a crutch is weak; we have fielded decent teams and we've tried to field contending teams yet no one still bothers to show up. The problem is that fans in this market will only bandwagon a contender, there are very few true Blue Jays fans, and while its easy to say "well then field a playoff team" it is extremely hard in our situation given the stupidity of how this league is set up. We've actively tried to win games and it sucks that there aren't enough fans.

We're drawing decent crowds now but April and May were terrible for attendance. Coming into this season everyone wrote the jays off saying they had no chance, and i think that put a lot of people off. The sad thing is that even when the Jays were in first for all those weeks, the crowds were still pretty small.

I blame it on the 1994 baseball strike. Since then it hasn't been the same. Attendance has been down. As a baseball fan, It left a bad taste in my mouth.

2 championships, followed by 15 years of missing the playoffs. Fans support Halladay (games he pitches seem to have better attendance), but really who wants to go to a game and watch Wells hitting 3rd in the lineup? I don't even hate the guy, but its frustrated me to the point that I won't go watch a game. You gave Wells a horrible contract, don't make it worse by being cowards and not bumping him down the order. I heard they might do it now, but honestly its a few weeks late. In this division you can't just give games away due to poor management of assets and expect to get anywhere. I have liked most of Citos managing but he's too soft on his players.

It pains me to say this since I grew up in Toronto, but it is not a baseball city anymore. The Jays are in the strongest division in baseball and have won 87, 83, and 86 the last three seasons. Not good enough to win the East obviously, but they have been a decent/good club, not a mediocre one. Even from an entertainment standpoint, you get to watch Halladay in his prime and a team that wins about 10 more games than they lose on average per season over the last three years. The Raptors get great attendance for a mediocre club. The Leafs would get great attendance regardless. Then you have the Jays; where fans only show up when the Yankees and Red Sox are in town, and even then 5,000-10,000 of the fans are probably rooting for the other team.

I think management deserves blame for attendance this year since they pretty much wrote off the season before it began and did not sign a single free agent to a MLB deal, but the attendance has been an issue for more than a decade now. In 1999 the team was leading the Wild Card in mid-August and the crowds were still disappointing.

At this point, I agree with the poster above, this is a bandwagon city. They just don't have the love for baseball that they do for hockey and basketball. If/when the Jays make the playoffs in the future, it will be a sellout. Don't expect anything until then, which is a shame.

What is there to see really?

..the only time I'm even half way compelled to watch the Jays at the dome is when Doc is on the mound.

Who the hell wants to see Wells continue to suck, or Rios strike out again?

Well you could watch to see Adam Lind and Aaron Hill becoming two of the top young players in baseball. Or to see Ricky Romero shove his changeup down the throats of all the people who called him a bust. Or to see Marco Scutaro make brilliant defensive plays while laughing at all he people who wouldn't give him a starter's role until he was 33.

But who wants to consider that when you can complain, right?

I'm a casual Jays fan who lost interest over the years as the Jays seemed content to flounder in mediocrity. The first month of this season was exciting, but it's all the same old stuff since then. The problem is compounded by MLB's frustrating 8 team play-offs. Hard to stay interested when you we all know what will happen. We'll be competitive until the trade deadline (maybe), at which point the Yankees (who already have a better team) will go out and buy a couple players and start pulling away for good. It got tiring a long time ago.

TJ11 wrote:What is there to see really?

..the only time I'm even half way compelled to watch the Jays at the dome is when Doc is on the mound.

Who the hell wants to see Wells continue to suck, or Rios strike out again?

Pathetic fans like you disgust me. You obviously have no love for the intricacies of baseball or see any value in watching the development of young pitchers.

Natural11 wrote:I'm a casual Jays fan who lost interest over the years as the Jays seemed content to flounder in mediocrity. The first month of this season was exciting, but it's all the same old stuff since then. The problem is compounded by MLB's frustrating 8 team play-offs. Hard to stay interested when you we all know what will happen. We'll be competitive until the trade deadline (maybe), at which point the Yankees (who already have a better team) will go out and buy a couple players and start pulling away for good. It got tiring a long time ago.

The Jays aren't mediocre, they are just stuck in a division that makes them look mediocre.