CrackerJack

Where will you guys stream the game from tonight? I subscribed to Sportsnet+ to get all of October playoff baseball. But don’t want to renew now for November when I’ll just be watching one sporting event the whole month. Cheers. Go Jays!

For tomorrow night? I bet the crowd will be in the Teens (less than 20k.)

The first 15,000 fans tomorrow night get a Vladdy bobblehead doll . . . they might not even get 15 K actually in attendance.

It can be an expensive night out, with jacked up prices for everything (other than loonie dogs.) I’ve had good season tickets for a long time. And my own experience is that my family, friends, co-workers etc. were hounding me all the time for tickets from 2013-2016 in the crappy old dome. Different story last year (with the Jays sometimes getting like 3-5 baserunners a game haha) and so far this Spring . . . the buzz is gone.

Yes, I’m sure Ed Rogers likes Mark. I don’t doubt that. And it’s great to have a renovated stadium etc. (with the potential of making lots of money) but fans won’t be coming to an improved shiny stadium in droves for cool giveaways/theme days etc. if the on field product is bad (and boring.) Check the Ticketmaster website … there are tickets galore available this season … (yeah, not the premium seating because those season ticket members had to pay for a couple of seasons in advance.) But if fans are skeptical to get tickets today when the Jays have both Vladdy & Bo and a chance to grab a wild card birth, then how rockin’ will the renovated Rogers Centre be (and how will TV ratings be?) during a rebuild? … (a rebuild or long retool after having zero success in the playoffs, and having never competed for a division title in 10 years? … if this season is a failure as well.)

So if this — the last year of the contention window, with a top 5 payroll, and a bottom one-third farm — turns out to be another season of meaningless September baseball, and the Rogers Centre is half empty with s***** TV ratings (in the 2nd half), and Vladdy & Bo are on their way out the door … Rogers is going to extend Shapiro?

I don’t see Shapiro ever being “fired” by Rogers, but maybe he decides to “move on” (to bigger and better things e.g. future commissioner?) after 10 years in Toronto. Do you think the decision whether he gets extended or not (or wants an extension) depends on anything the Blue Jays do on or off the field this season?

Rogers Centre now has about 39K seats and add another K for those with outfield district tickets and in private suites. They called the home opener a “sellout” at 40,069.

I’m a Blue Jays season ticket holder/member lifer.

If one really believed that Ohtani was on that flight and signing here was imminent, then is it a stretch to say that most Jays games would’ve been sellouts and having good tickets would’ve been like gold?

I think that the Jays will draw under 30K per game (on average) next season. They’re averaging 33K this season … and tickets were bought in advance for a team that was supposed to be in the mix of playoff contention … also had the fleeting Ohtani frenzy … and was the first year with the shiny new 100 level renos. Attendance will drop for a last place team playing boring baseball. (If selling tickets wasn’t a concern, then they wouldn’t be trying to lure season ticket members with an opportunity to attend one of Taylor Swift’s shows at Rogers Centre.)

Perfect night for baseball on Monday as well, and the giveaway was a Vladdy bobblehead. My wife and niece attended the game. They didn’t get to the Rogers Centre early to get the bobbleheads, instead we all went for a relaxing dinner downtown and then they just showed up at their empty stadium gate at a normal time. I couldn’t believe that they both still got a bobblehead. (It was the second smallest home crowd of the season so far.)

whoever coined the portmanteau “shatkins” was quite creative.

There is only about 38,000 seats in the Rogers Centre now, and the home opener is not quite a sell out (at this moment) … you can still get 7 seats in a row in the lower bowl. (And they sold a lot of home opener tickets during the “Ohtani is on a plane to Toronto” frenzy and that’s probably why they didn’t tell one of their Sportsnet mouthpieces to quell the rumours about that.) So how embarrassing will it be to see a nearly half empty shiny splashy stadium for quite a few games this season?

I don’t think that Shapiro will be fired, but at some point he’ll be moving on … and with ten years in the books and the renovations complete and with Bo & Vladdy perhaps gone, then maybe he moves into the commissioner’s office (or something) to be groomed to take over for Manfred haha