Jays see ticket sales decline sharply

[LittleOzzy]

The Blue Jays are turning heads with their hot start to the season – but not turnstiles.

Attendance figures released for the month of April – which the Jays ended tied atop the AL East – show Toronto as baseball's third biggest loser in average attendance compared to 2008.

With 10 home games in the first month of the season, crowds at the Rogers Centre are down on average to 20,396 from 26,864 in 2008.

Washington, Detroit and Atlanta, join the Jays as the so-called biggest losers, according to baseball's monthly attendance report. The two Florida teams – the Marlins and Rays – show the biggest gains, followed by Oakland, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati.

Even with two new ballparks in New York, MLB overall is down at the turnstiles from this time last year by an average of 866 tickets per game.

http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/627921

[SCF99]

i wish it wasn't so far to get the Rogers center from manitoba i would boost the attendence by 1 every couple of games

[hyper316]

just wait till the skanks and smelly sox come into town, it's gonna jump up significantly

btw, do jays still have those toonie tuesdays?

[gei]

Didn't the organization say they were going to count attendance differently this year - and that would result in much lower attendance numbers? I think they no longer count tickets that were given away during promotions and some other ways...

The actual number of people watching the games might be the same as last year...

[jalenrose#5]

I don't put much into those numbers...The Jays hae faced the Tigers, A's, Rangers and the O's at home...hardly the best teams out there. Last year they faced the Red Sox and Yanks early thus the larger numbers. Also, they ran 2 dollar tuesdays...which were another decent gimmick to draw fans.

I'm not concerned at all actually now that i think about it...it's just disappointing.

[snomeister]

I think a big part of it is expectations. Last year we were supposed to contend for a playoff spot, this year we weren't. Look at Detroit, they stunk last year and are doing fine this year, but their attendance dropped too. That's expectations.

Hopefully more people will start coming once it's clear this team is legit. And like has been said, BoSox and Yankees haven't come to town yet.