Attendance Watch 2011: The Toronto Blue Jays

[LittleOzzy]

2009 Total Attendance: 1.87 million

2009 Average Attendance & Sell-Thru: 23,162 (45.9%)

2009 Record: 75-87, Missed Postseason

2010 Total Attendance: 1.62 million

2010 Average Attendance & Sell-Thru: 20,068 (39.9%)

2010 Record: 85-77, Missed Postseason

Looking ahead to 2011……

Notable offseason addition/subtractions: Traded Vernon Wells

Interleague LY: Philadelphia Phillies, SF Giants, and St. Louis Cardinals

Interleague TY: Philadelphia Phillies, Houston Astros, and Pittsburgh Pirates

April/May Games: 11 in April, 17 in May in 2011 vs. 15 in April and 11 in May in 2010

Holidays: Home - 4/24 Easter 7/1 Canada Day 9/5 Labor Day Road - 5/23 Victoria Day

Overall Outlook: The Blue Jays are faced with a tough task ahead at the box office. Only 4 of their first 29 games are against the Yankees and Sox all of which are midweek. With no playoffs for the past 17 years and ticket sales slumping, the team seemed to turn a corner last year on the field under the guidance of Alex Anthopoulos but off it though the team had its worst year in ticket sales since 1982. This offseason the team froze ticket prices. Additionally, the team has a worse interleague schedule than last year working against them. I believe the team has hit the bottom and will only see sales rise in the 2011 season. I think 1.75 million in ticket sales is the number the Jays will be looking at in October.

http://bizofbaseball.com/index.php?opti ... Itemid=196

Last year the season started off with lots of articles about the Jays lack of fans going to games... Do you think that will continue or could the Jays see an increase in ticket sales?

[WpgPage]

Better than last year but not by much my guess 1.68 mil

[Graham's Cracker]

I'd be surprised if attendance increase. I think next year, we'll really notice a spike in attendance.

Last year was fun watching all the youngsters get a chance to play, but the stadium won't fill until we're competititve late in the season, or if we add some big names in the off-season.

[MGD24]

That Philly series over the Canada Day long weekend will do well

[CapeCrusader]

Better but not that much better.

[Geddy]

It will probably be worse than last year unless the team starts off hot. Fans here usually don't get into Baseball until about June but only earlier if the team looks like a playoff contender.

[LittleOzzy]

Who is going to the home opener?

[rtcaino]

I'm going!

I got 29 tix, pretty excited. hit the loose moose after work for some 4 dollar pints.

[MGD24]

Who is going to the home opener?

Myself and OldNo7 will be

[baulderdash77]

I'm going. I got a 20 pack this year but since I have a family of 5 that's really only 4 games mostly on Friday's and Saturdays. I'll probably go to 1 or 2 mid-week games as well.

I think that attendance is going to get to around 2 million this year. There's alot more buz about the team and people are going to go more often. Opening weekend and the Philly series are going to get 100k each IMO.

[WpgPage]

going to the second game with some friends from Uni driving down from Kingston should be a lot of fun

[jaymeister15]

Going with a few buddies to the home opener (and probably the Sunday game as well depending on the weather)

Last summer was the first summer I've lived in Toronto, I'm about a 10 minute walk away from the rogers centre after being at least a 2 hour drive away the rest of my life. I went to about 20 games last year, and will probably go to at least the same this year...walking over for a Saturday afternoon game in the sun is a great way to spend a day.

[LittleOzzy]

Any guess what the attendance will be tonight?

[Schad]

Any guess what the attendance will be tonight?

Probably 20-23k. If it's on the high end or even above, that's a really promising sign: as far as I can tell, we only had two weekday games all of last season against non-Yanks/non-Sox teams above that level (one was the home opener, the other was a seemingly random Tuesday afternoon in May...was that a holiday?). Mix in that this isn't exactly a sexy pitching match-up and we're coming off a heartbreaker, and it should be a low-attendance game...if it isn't, I'll start believing that fans are really buying in to what they're doing again, which would be great.

[Brew666]

I see attendance dipping again this year b/c the casual fan is going to lose interest when the team isn't winning.

It was nice to see that attendance for the home opener was the busiest series since 2008 but anyone who cheers for a Toronto team right now is dying for a winner and I think that has worked in favour for the Jays. With AA getting a lot of positive press, I think the casual fan see's something positive to get behind but once the Jays are out of the playoff race, they'll stop showing up.

And I'm sure Bautista's 54 drew a few people to the gate last year as well.

As much as I like to think that watching the young players develop and growing into a quality baseball team will draw in fans, I'm not going to give that much credit to the casual Toronto sports fan.

[Michael Bradley]

I went to Opening Day and there seemed to be a buzz about the Jays this season. Maybe it was just for that one game, but the Jays are by far the best sports team in Toronto out of the big three (baseball, hockey, basketball) and have had tons of positive press from both Canadian and American media. I'm hoping for at least a noticeable attendance increase this season. It won't get too big until the team makes the playoffs again.

Needless to say, there is a baseball market in Toronto. They just need a reason to get excited. This is probably the best time to be a Jays fan since '93, so hopefully we are on the cusp of something great over the next five years.

[LittleOzzy]

Jays keep winning but can't draw a crowd

Apparently given the choice of an excellent baseball team or a thoroughly ineffective basketball team, Toronto sports fans prefer the hoops.

Only around 12,000 people were in attendance at the Jays game at the Rogers Centre, Wednesday night, while there were almost 15,000 people at the Air Canada Centre to see the Raptors fall to the 29th place Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Jays are getting smart hitting, sharp pitching and near perfect defence, but who's watching?

The Raptors shoot like drunker sailors and defend like ... well, they don't defend. Maybe it's the free T-shirts they shoot into the stands that brings in the crowds?

Jays sold out for opening day and did bring in over 100,000 on opening weekend, but it looks as if they'll have to keep winning to fill the seats this summer.

http://www.680news.com/sports/article/2 ... aw-a-crowd

[darth_federer]

The dome was nearly empty a couple of days ago. This team needs to win to get fans. They re getting record tv and radio ratings though.

All they need to do is win consistently and the fans will show up. Toronto fans are desperate for a winner in any sport. After the Raptors won 47 games we sold out 38 of the 41 games the next year.