The Blue Jays’ inability to draw fans in by the thousands has been an issue all year, but the juxtaposition with the Bruins-Sabres game made the problem that much clearer.
The Blue Jays have already set the franchise mark for lowest attendance at a game, and they’re setting new marks as the season goes on. With 10,610 paying customers against Chicago this season, the Blue Jays set a historical low, but just five days later, only 10,314 fans bought tickets for a game against the Royals (numbers via The Biz of Baseball). Even when reigning Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke came to Toronto, the Rogers Center was just 31 percent full (15,577 were in attendance).
Still, you figured with the Red Sox in town, a big-time boost was in order. As Monday’s game showed, that wasn’t the case.
The attendance was just 13,847, and if you watched on TV, it looked to be much lower. The Boston Globe noted that it was the smallest crowd the Red Sox have played in front of since May 20, 2004 in Tampa Bay. The Globe hints that it’s a sign of the baseball economy, but is that really the problem? It took about 15 seconds to find six tickets for $14 each on the Blue Jays’ website, the Maple Leafs averaged 19,260 fans per game (102.5 percent of capacity, according to ESPN.com) and the Jays brought in over 23,000 per game just last season, so it’s hard to believe it’s simply a matter of economics.
What it is, exactly, is hard to say. Sending Roy Halladay off to the National League and receiving some prospects in return may be the right move in the long-term plans for the Blue Jays, but it’s not exactly putting bodies in the seats. Whatever the reason may be, Red Sox fans can prepare to watch two more games in bizarro world this week, before they’re guaranteed to see the Sox play in front of thousands of their own fans … in Baltimore.
In the meanwhile, check out some of these photos from this season at the Rogers Center. Spooky stuff, indeed.
