Winning Just Doesn't Attract

Maybe people just miss Paul Godfrey that much.

Nah, that can't be it.

You do have to wonder, however, that with only one winning major league sports team in this city - okay, two if you want to include Toronto FC, which I don't - the Toronto Blue Jays are suffering from a significant attendance hit these days.

Yes, there are complicating factors. The season has barely started, the dome is much nicer open than when closed and baseball attendance in general is down (about 7 per cent), although not as badly as some feared it would be when projections suggested tough economic times might knock down attendance across-the-board by 17-20 per cent.

Still, you'd think a winning team in this city at this time would attract some people.

Instead, the Jays appealed to only 18,331 customers on Saturday for a game against Baltimore, and then a tidy little crowd of 20,418 yesterday as the club completed a sweep of the Orioles.

In all, average attendance so far is about 20,200, the worst in a decade and well down from last year's average of 29,626.

Again, yes, there are reasons. For instance, neither the Yankees nor the Bosox have come to town, although that's almost become an artificial way for the Jays to pump up their attendance numbers since those two clubs bring a travelling band of fans with them. And there was that no-beer game that one supposes would have discouraged some from attending.

That said, it should be noted that not only are the 18-9 Jays playing well these days, they have almost no competition, with both the Raptors and Maple Leafs having started their summer vacations long ago.

This is a baseball team that has the market to itself. Yet the numbers aren't there.

Nobody's expecting things to be like they were back in the salad days when the Jays attendance peaked at a 50,098 average back in 1993. But since a low of 20,209 in 2002, the fans had been slowly but gradually coming back, and last season the club's average attendance was sixth best in the American League.

Now back to this. Lots of reasons for it, but at the end of the day, it's peculiar that a city that should be starved for a winner doesn't seem interested in a once-beloved baseball team that's off to a start that equals the best in its history.

Comments

[max]

It's true that the Blue Jays haven't played any of the powerhouses yet and that the atmosphere is much, much better with the dome open, but maybe all those in the media and elsewhere criticizing the lack of attendance are forgetting that people have other things to do. People work, people have school, some are not yet done exams - some cannot simply find the time right now. That being said, were you at the game yesterday Damien? The Reporters wasn't on, so you should have had time. Now I'm not attacking you, but I'm trying to make the point that you can't criticize others for not going when you are not doing the same yourself. Also, to everyone in the media, please remember that the rest of us are not being paid to watch sports, unlike you guys.

[Sanj]

@max - The Reporters were on @ 12:30pm.

Maybe for once people are using their common sense and saving their money for important things besides sports.

[furcifer]

Well Damien maybe the fans are following your advice. They're staying away to force the team to be competitive.

After all they can't be like Leafs Fans "A non-demanding fan base that turns out no matter what" (Cox, May 1st, 2009). Of course that would be ridiculous. TFC fans did that and that didn't work. They showed up regardless and now their team is...tied for first in the East. Hmmm....makes you think.

[Steve]

There's no "artificial" way to pump up an average Damien. It's a mathematical value determined by dividing the total sum of those in attendance by the number of games they play. Artificially pumping up the number would entail "artificial" attendees. THAT would be creative, but I don't see how travelling bands of fans for other clubs artificially add to the numbers. A ticket sold is a ticket sold.

[George]

Hey Damien... do you think the low attendance has anything to do with all the negativity that the sports writers were giving the fans before the season started? Everywhere I looked, they all had the Jays pegged as a 4th place club, and possibly even last in their division. I agree with the above comment, people decided to use their money for other purposes once they started reading that the Jays were not going anywhere this year.

[Newt]

This past off-season was perhaps the most depressing in recent memory for Jays fans:

AJ Burnett opts out and goes to the Yankees as a free agent;

promising young hurlers McGowan and Marcum both go under the knife;

the club now has to deal with three apparent powerhouse teams in their own division the Red Sox, Yankees, and Rays; and

the club failed to make any meaningful acquisitions in light of these new challenges.

Expectations were so low many fans tuned out before the season even began.

Tune back in folks, you're missing out on one heck of a spring.

[Buck16]

Don't worry Newt, the fair-weather fans will be back if the team keeps rolling. They'll be the ones getting tanked, fighting, and starting the ghastly wave at the most inopportune times, all while saying they knew the Jays were going to be great this year.

[chris]

The reason the fans aren't going out to see the Jays may well be that nobody believes this team is capable of making it to the post season. And why would they? The pitching, outside of Halladay, is bad, and the hitting, while great, will go into cold streaks guaranteed. That's not going to get you into the post season in a division as tough as the AL East. It's the end of the first month of the season and there are still five more to go. It's a long season.

Of course, why would anyone believe in all this smoke and mirrors if this means J.P. Ricciardi will be back as general manager? If Paul "The Weasel" Godfrey were still Jays president, he'd have signed his weasel protoge to a new ten year contract by now.

[Bold Bravado]

Damien, In reality what did the Jays have going for them to strike some excitement in the fans?? Lost one of the top aces, didn’t examine the FA market with any type of true urgency to sign someone. Instead signed a bunch of has beens or never was, reduced the team budget! What was expected??? I’ll tell you, last place! You can site economic times, you can site fair weather fans, but, really, it appears the fans are holding management accountable for a seeming unwillingness to put a top notch club on the field. I’ll be the first to say “Kudos” to Cito. I had always thought anyone could win a Championship given the Jays talent pool back in the 90’s, this year really tells of his and staffs abilities.
I never understand it, playoff revenues are pure profit!!
Plain and simple, “If you win, they will come”!!

[Peter]

Hm, the Leafs fans are bad because they go to the game, Jays fans are bad because they don't. go figure.
i guess if the Jays play this good after the all-star break, fans will start to show up.

[GTA based fan - former Toronto resident]

There are various reasons why the attendance is low. Some have been covered in previous answers. The most important one to me would be CO$T of the tickets. I know a number of people that together used to purchase close to 20 seasons tickets every year. This year that entire group has purchased four flex pack tickets. All but two of the season ticket holders claim they can no longer afford or justify the cost of season tickets. The other two have lost interest in sports since the steroid scandles.

[Sandeep Kembhavi]

That's comment is both really pompous, Steve, and poorly thought-out . Cox's point is that the boost to the Jays' average season attendance that results from higher attendance at Red Sox and Yankees games is attributed to the travelling troops of fans of those two teams, and thus artificially inflates the apparent size of the Jays' ticket-buying fan base. It means the average attendance of, say, 22,000 reflects perhaps 20,000 Jays' fans and 2,000 Sox and Yanks fans, and we when talking about average attendance numbers, we need to understand what those numbers represent.

[Devil's Advocate]

Low blow on TFC there....funny how a team that you don't even consider to be a "major league sports team" has the only average attendance for 2009 that is above 20,000 according to ESPN. They also have about 16,000 season ticket holders and are looking to expand the stadium by up to 8,000 seats. Unless your watermark for a major league sports team is overpaid, ego inflated athletes (oh ya there is that guy named David Beckham that makes me cringe) or tv ratings (gotta love the NHL on Versus and the outdoor life network)then perhaps you should rethink that stance.