Jays fans just might surprise
Changing market might have patience for rebuilding team
So there we were, a family of five (the sixth was elsewhere) sitting in our living room on a Saturday night in August, watching Toronto FC taking on the Chicago Fire from the Windy City just hours after the Blue Jays had lost to the Cubs at Wrigley.
Nicely arranged, a Windy City-416 doubleheader. For our family, however, gathering for the soccer was a little unusual.
Then again, three or four years ago, it would have been unthinkable.
All the kids in our clan played soccer, one still does, and my wife both played the game and coaches. So it’s not like this is a soccer-hating household.
But watching Toronto FC as appointment viewing? Nope, it just wasn’t part of our universe, certainly not like watching the Jays and Leafs, or the Olympics, or Wimbledon, or the world juniors, or the Grey Cup, or the World Cup.
But it is now. That tells you something about the way in which TFC has inserted itself into the larger GTA sporting conversation, primarily through the club’s drive to the MLS championship game a year ago. The best soccer in the world? Apparently not, which makes us like Swedes who like watching the Swedish elite league in hockey.
We watch, and we cheer, for a whole variety of reasons in our communities, and it’s not always because it’s the best of the best. Moreover, those reasons change like demographics change in a big, vibrant metropolis like Toronto.
TFC is a good team, for starters, maybe a championship team this season. It has many identifiable players, a few Canadians, and any number of appealing characters to choose from. Me, I admire Michael Bradley’s brainy approach, and appreciate Eriq Zavaleta’s stout work at the back. My son really enjoys watching Spanish midfielder Victor Vasquez. We all hooted when Marky Delgado’s clever back-heel created a second half goal by newcomer Nicolas Hasler.
TFC has made us want to watch after years of basically ignoring the team, which is another lesson in how it’s almost always a mistake, in life, politics, culture and sport, to assume the way things are right now, or were in the recent past, will be the way they will always be.
The Argonauts, the class of threedown football in Eastern Canada (which doesn’t say much) are very much hoping that will be the case, and that there’s a new era of prosperity out there somewhere. It’s too early to see much evidence of that, but we’ll keep an eye out for it.
The Leafs, by going aggressively young, certainly erased the belief that hockey fans in these parts would never stand for such a thing, and the coming season will be among the most anticipated in years. Which brings us to the Blue Jays. The assumption by the team and many of its fans in observers back in the early 1990s when the dome was filled every night, was that it was the new reality and would stay that way. Wrong.
By 1999, attendance had dropped to less than 30,000 per game. By 2010, 17 years after the baseball playoffs had visited the city, attendance was 18,463, and the club’s total attendance was down a massive 63 per cent.
The reasons for the drop-off depended on who you talked to. Some cited the unfriendly dome, others the mediocrity of the ball club, many went back to the baseball strike that damaged interest for some and probably killed the Montreal Expos. Some snorted T.O. just wasn’t a bona fide baseball city.
Getting back to the playoffs the last two years has, as we all know, reignited interest in a team that again has a wide variety of intriguing individual players. The team averaged a shade under 42,000 per game last year, and this year it’s down slightly to just over 40,000, still fifth best in all of baseball. Television numbers have increased exponentially.
We’ve also witnessed what seems to be an increase in the ability and willingness of Jays fans to follow the team on the road. Last year’s September series in Seattle was an eye-opener in terms of interest in western Canada, and the Mariners, to their chagrin, experienced another influx of Jays mania earlier this season.
This past weekend, while the Jays were being swept at Wrigley, the fabled baseball park was filled with Jays fans.
They weren’t there because the Jays are good. They were there cheering on a team that hasn’t been very good at all while visiting a terrific North American sports city.
Still, as the team contemplates where to turn after this disappointing season, there’s this belief among some media and fans that Jays management and ownership won’t dare institute a youth movement or take a significant step back in American League East for fear attendance and overall interest will quickly and almost immediately deteriorate to 2010 levels.
This team essentially played itself out of contention with an embarrassing April. But other than moving pitchers Francisco Liriano and Joe Smith, the team has declined thus far to move aggressively towards trading assets from baseball’s oldest team to acquire younger pieces. Marco Estrada, J.A. Happ and Jose Bautista are still here. So is Josh Donaldson, for that matter, but his is a very different situation.
Is this evidence that Jays management is nervous about sending the wrong message to its fan base? Maybe. But it shouldn’t be nervous. Just because losing and extended mediocrity hurt attendance once doesn’t mean the same thing will happen again.
Indeed, you could argue this is a very new and different Jays fan culture we’re witnessing that goes to ball games home and away because, well, they like baseball and love their team, and not just when it’s winning.
Now, if the Jays go off on another 20-plus years of missing the playoffs, interest will be severely impacted. But if the move is to recalibrate and rebuild the team with an emphasis on youth, and that results in a few 75-win finishes, there’s lots of evidence to suggest fans won’t stay away in droves, but will actively enjoy the process.
Things change. Just ask TFC. This is a different city than it was a quarter century ago, even than it was at the beginning of this century. The media is surely different. Entertainment options are different. The dome, for goodness sakes, is different.
If the Jays articulate a clear game plan of moving toward youth that will require some patience, their fans won’t abandon them. The more dangerous choice? Mediocrity with an old, broken-down team and few exciting prospects organized by a management team paralyzed by fear of fan rejection. Damien Cox is the co-host of Prime Time Sports on Sportsnet 590 The FAN. He spent nearly 30 years covering a variety of sports for The Star. Follow him @DamoSpin. His column appears Tuesday and Saturday.
This is a different Jays fan culture we’re witnessing . . . they like baseball and love their team, and not just when it’s winning