jglicksm

Last year they flagged anyone that was off the T-mobile network during the sign-up process. Once you were signed up you could use the app or watch on the computer/ other platforms using any network (for me Verizon in the USA and Rogers in Canada). I only know this because I got booted last year and called to find out why and then had to use my friend's MLB TV account all season (who also had gotten it free from someone else's T-mobile account). That's at least what was explained to me by phone and I had no issue watching from his account on the Verizon and Rogers networks all season.

I'm going to just throw it out there that there are scientific studies that show that height does correlate with heart size. https://www.jwatch.org/na40701/2016/03/22/turns-out-body-size-correlated-with-heart-size https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24014823

That's actually not so bad. Tier 1 (equivalent to A) games in Boston are 50%-90% more and in USD to boot in some equivalent seats. While, if you're in the infield grandstands it's a little under $100 a ticket, most of those seats have some sort of obstruction whereas there are no pillars to obstruct in Toronto. Have a look if you're interested: http://m.mlb.com/redsox/tickets/info/seating-pricing

FYI- you can get the home opener and Canada Day in addition to a 12 pack (right to each with pack). It can be included in a 20 pack of course.

That blows. I have a good group and my seats are row 1. One or maybe two games from my set went unused. Most games went to group members, but those that didn't never sold below cost on stubhub... a few rows (and specifically being in row 1) makes a big difference. I didn't really "make a lot of money" but I did watch a lot of "free" baseball...and got on the field via the MyBlueJays program which got my brother-in-law and I an Aaron Judge autograph/ photo with him along with some other guys from the Yankees. That being said I'm much happier with my tickets in Boston (in particular the season ticket "experience"-- the perks are way better and generally available to everyone, not just by raffle e.g. taking batting practice on the field this season).

Before you jump, especially if you're thinking 500-level, DM me... I may have a spot in my group for next year (which isn't shocking given how 2017 went). My seats are 524 row 1 (1st row of 500's right behind home plate).

I heard the estimate last week was 1/3 non-renewal. Probably can't attribute the price increase to all of those non-renewals, but it sure wouldn't have helped.

Monday I believe. Are you looking to get seasons next year?!?

I got a notice earlier in the week. One of my season ticket partners will be attending.

Notices are out. I can confirm this.

I haven't received my renewal notice yet but a friend forwarded me his. It leads me to believe they are not completely pushing brokers away yet. The resale policy used to say that you had to follow the laws but otherwise resale wasn't restricted. Now they have addressed resale explicitly in the marketing literature that accompanied the emails: "The Season Ticket Member benefits described on this page are not available to commercial resellers." "The early bird season ticket price is not available to commercial resellers regardless of whether the renewal occurs during the Early Bird renewal window" It looks like they are OK with brokers for now (that could change), but if you are holding season tickets for the business of it then you'll have to pay more (seems reasonable actually). What will be interesting is how they determine who a "commercial reseller" is. Around the league teams take different approaches to this ranging from not caring to determining it by percentage of tickets resold to people that aren't season ticket partners (seems hard to enforce). I read that the Boston Bruins started doing it by zip code... eg if your tickets are registered in LA and you have a lot of them then you are probably a broker.

I don't think the impact was that big. There are a lot of brokers out there who post on multiple services. Stubhub is the go to site for most people anyway (it is the biggest company and has a massive market share- I've read 50% or more). From before to after the partnership there wasn't a huge difference in number of tickets posted per game from what I remember. I think this is a supply issue on the secondary market rather than a demand issue. Obviously attendance is announced based on ticket sales, not butts in seats, but it is clear people are still showing up in droves. Demand is there, just not at the big prices and people are desperate to get out what they can (even if just 6 bucks on a 20 or more dollar ticket). Motivated sellers (be it real brokers or the everyday brokers ticket sites have created) are driving the price drop. What shocks me is that the Jays now have sales data from StubHub. It is clear that the supply demand curve there favours lower rather than higher prices, but they are still bullish. I think this will backfire but only time will tell.

I agree that people won't go away because of the increase. The increase is going to be icing on the cake. One of the problems we haven't touched in this forum with respect to brokers is the neighbor effect (pardon me for just making up this name). People don't like knowing the person next to them spent less for the same seats which has been happening all year due to the collapse of the resale market. Why renew for 81 games when you know the person next to you only had to buy the 5 games they wanted (or 10 or 15 or 20) and your neighbor paid less than you for 80% of games? Top that off with the pessimism of the fan base re 2018 success (personally I think they're more likely to do better in 2018 than to do worse or the same, but I could see how an argument to the contrary could be made). Personally I know at least 8 people that have season tickets. About half of them got them new this year because they figured the Jays make the playoffs and they feared missing out on tickets again. They've regretted it since April. Unless you have tickets that are the best in your section it is a lot of work to move the ones you can't use. Even with my row 1s they soemetimes go unused. I've donated a bunch of tickets this year which I actually like doing (I did last year too, but it was premeditated whereas this year a lot has been tickets nobody wanted). So many games in baseball means most people use less than half their games. In a good year it is hard to get rid of 40+ games. This year has been a bad one and people are hurting. If it has been bad for me with first row 500s I can only imagine the experience for others. If you look at other forums, twitter, blogs, etc... the overriding sentiment I have seen is that a lot of people weren't planning to renew regardless of price. This is the cherry on top.

Except that it is the third year in a row of hikes and my seats are more than double the cost of 2015 which is 2 years ago/ 3 seasons ago. And in 2016 and prior we got $200 back in the way of a gift card for renewing early. Plus the perks/expirences have diminished. Last year the weakening Canadian dollar was sited as major factor. Now the Canadian dollar is 10% better and showing signs of further rebound. When you consider that their main expenses are in USD and that is the currency supposedly used as a barometer the price increases are even more substantial.

Brownie19- I agree the Jays shouldn't care about cutting into reseller's profit margin. I think we read ChrisS's post differently, though. It sounds like he didn't buy to resell, but rather to access the perks of being a season ticket holder and now has realized he is better off on the secondary market (better seats for not much more money, or in some cases less money for better seats) so why renew? I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt. Your point about people buying to flip is well-taken and I agree with that per though.

I know what you mean. This season on weekend games I was able to buy (on StubHub) tickets in the 100s just before the site closed off same day sales for less than the face value of my own season tickets. In these cases I just did the upgrade and gave my 500 level tickets to friends for free and everyone was happy (except the person on the other end of the stubhub transaction). I still love my row 1s enough to keep them for my trips back to toronto... they are still relatively cheap and good value all things considered. I like the mybluejays program and have taken advantage of it. I also think access to perks will improve as STHs drop out since there will be less competition for the limited space events. If I had row 3 or higher I almost certainly would walk away, though, even if I lived in Toronto. 3 people I share with have already said they'd be upset if I bailed on the row 1s since I can't transfer the season tickets to them.

By the way- the way the email appears to be worded,it doesn't look like you can upgrade before you renew. This also makes sense because the renewal period needs to end before they can move anyone into seats that are given up for next year. If the rows/sections you want do pop up and you haven't renewed I can't see them charging you the early renewal fee so it would cost even more for next year.

I think you are absolutely right in your post. I'm 524B row 1. Once I get the renewal email I will feel out my season ticket share partners. If not enough interest and I need more people you could possibly join us. I've moved to Boston but I'm back a lot and love my seats... hard to give up row 1 even if the team tanks for a few years. I still expect I will get to 10-15 games next year.

Can't confirm if this is real or not first hand, but Andrew Stoeten who I trust has indicated to me that he has been forwarded a copy of a renewal email and it looks the same, so this is probably legitimate. Part of me is baffled that ticket prices are going up (17% for my 500 level seats) considering the performances on the field, how many people seem to plan not to renew (based on Twitter and forums) and how poorly tickets are performing on the secondary market. Part of me also looks at it and says north of 3,000,000 tickets have been/will be sold for 2017 and they raised prices last year without hurting season ticket enrolment (in fact it increases). Who else has Jays season tickets? Will this impact your decision to renew? Here is a link to a Reddit thread that has the new price grids. I'm not sophisticated enough to embed (especially from my phone), so if you know how feel free to put the images up below!

How is your scalper friend doing this year? I can't imagine it's working out well with the prices so low. Does he give you the impression that a lot of his colleagues will be getting out of Jays tickets or reducing their stake significantly? In reference to the post above about the survey that went out, I doubt the brokers participated!

I want to clarify your assertion-- are you suggesting that there being a lot of tickets on multiple sites suggests that it is brokers? The assumption there being that whoever listed them listed the same tickets on multiple sites (presumably with software that automatically manages the tickets)? That's an interesting and pretty smart way to look at it. I tried doing it on a smaller level just now. I pulled up Stubhub and TickPick for the next home game against Oakland for my section (524B). There is less overlap than I'd expect based on your hypothesis of 65% brokers when you look at the smaller listings. What I did notice, though is that there are some major listings of 8-10 tickets in what I think are really undesirable seats (8 together available in rows 12, 16, 18 and 19; 10 together in row 12 and 16-- these in 12 or 16 are probably the same listing of 10 tickets that appear on the 8 and 10 tickets wanted filter). Sure enough if you then look at the next game, these listings still exist. Then a game later and 2 games later all but a few of them are listed. Here is the kicker, though... when you look at cross-listing in these rows between the two sites they appear on both tickpick and stubhub. Hard to imagine these aren't broker seats-- who would want 8-10 high row 500-level tickets if they weren't looking to flip them all (under the expectation they'd actually be worth something). I looked at some other sections. Similar situation in 524B (row 19, 10 tickets) and 525 (4, 6 and 17 all have 8-10 available)... then I stopped because you are clearly right. In jus those 3 sections there are 80 DEFINITE tickets held by scalpers big enough to have automated software. On top of that there were several other dozen 8-10 ticket listings not cross listed between these two sites, that could be cross-listed with other sites. Good call, Burlingtonbandit!

I've heard that somewhere between 14,000-16,000 seats belong to season ticket holders. Not sure how many actual holders there are.

Depends on the section. They were selling seasons until about a month ago, but at the same time there is a list. This probably helped and may be why they have been so good about the perks offered (Jays should take note): https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2013/02/27/many-red-sox-ticket-holders-fleeing-now/S2HwrcNSX6D4Iuqa4G8PLN/story.html

I agree with you that this is all supply/demand on the secondary market. I think, however, that stubhub has made the average Joe into an everyday scalper. I don't think either of us has the info to make a judgement either way about whether it is being driven by brokers or the general public who bought more tickets than they needed to a team that has underperformed relative to expectations. In general, though, I agree with your premise and hold the same opinion. In markets with less brokers the brokers can charge more than their discounted season ticket cost, but less than the box office (for better seats than what the box has) for lower demand games and rake it in on the high demand games that sell out. In the current secondary market there are so many sellers out there and not enough buyers for the majority of games that the sellers race to the bottom in hopes that their tickets don't go completely unsold. What's interesting is that I thought that in bad years it was better for the team to have brokers because at least the tickets get sold. However, that may not actually be the case. What's happened is the secondary market is so weak that it's cutting into the bottom line for the team as box office prices are so much higher than stubhub (which has "verified tickets" in better locations than the box has, and these tickets were sold by the team at season ticket or game pack discounted prices). It seems that in a bear market and in a bull market the team may actually be worse off and that is why, in my opinion, they will try to remove brokers over time.

Yes. I moved to Boston this season. I now have seasons in both cities- but my friends are taking almost all my Toronto games for obvious reasons if I even decide to renew next year. I signed up for seasons in Boston in the end. One of the way the reps convinced me to do it over a game pack was I got to take BP. Legit BP. On the field. Came close to but did no to hit the Green Monster. And on top of that I get to go on the field for batting practice on Wednesday. My rep knows I'm a Jays fan and offered it to me it of the Blue (pun intended). How's that for service?