Winning creates boom at box office, merchandise counters
The Blue Jays have won six of seven games since they traded for Troy Tulowitzki. A couple of days later David Price came in another trade, arriving to a locker full of popcorn. And the sudden buzz among fans is translating into booming business at the box office and merchandise counters, and for ticket resellers too.
TICKETS
Last Thursday, the day the Price trade was announced, the Jays sold 35,000 tickets. The next day they sold 29,000, said Stephen Brooks, the team’s vice-president of business operations. On an average home-game day, sales range from 3,500 to 5,000, Brooks said.
During the past few days, and particularly on the weekend, “our daily sales volumes (tickets we sell on a day-to-day to basis for all future games) were more than quadruple what we normally sell,” Jason Diplock, the Jays’ vice-president of ticket sales and service, said in an email. He declined to give specific figures, citing club policy.
MERCHANDISE
During the weekend, the Jays sold a combined 1,400 jerseys and T-shirts emblazoned with the names of either Tulowitzki or Price. That figure excludes online sales, “which experienced double the normal volume of (weekend) sales,” said Anthony Partipilo, VP of marketing and merchandising.
“The past few days our overall sales have been up over 40 per cent,” Partipilo said in an email.
ATTENDANCE
Including Tuesday night’s crowd of 27,060, the Jays have drawn an average of 34,635 to the seven games since Tulowitzki took over for Jose Reyes at shortstop. Average attendance this season is 29,481.
They had two sellouts of more than 45, 700 on Sunday andM onday.
Those turnouts, however, were not the biggest of the season. Opening night on April 13 drew 48,414, and consecutive games against Baltimore, an archrival in the division, on June 21-22 drew just over 46,000 each.
Tuesday night’s crowd pushed the Jays’ season home attendance over the 1.6-million mark for 55 games. That’s an increase of about 43,000 over the 55-game mark last year.
All attendance figures represent tickets sold, not turnstile counts.
The numbers available do not measure the noise level in the Rogers Centre since Alex Anthopoulos swung those two eye-popping trades. Both Price and Tulowitzki have been impressed.
Price said Monday’s crowd created “the best atmosphere I’ve ever been in.” After Tuesday night’s 3-1 win over Minnesota, Tulowitzki echoed that sentiment.
“Being here for a week, I can tell that it is a good team and it’s an awesome place to play, especially coming down the stretch run now,” he said. “These fans are loud and it makes it exciting.”