JAYS FANDOM GETS PRICIER IN THE WEST
With Canadians filling Seattle for games, Mariners have doubled some ticket prices
As soon as (the players) walk out of the dugout to stretch and all that, the place is damn near full and the people are going nuts.
It starts when the players wander out of the dugout and onto the field for their pre-game stretch. It continues through the introductions and anthems and every Toronto Blue Jays at-bat.
Toronto manager John Gibbons said the roars his team will get this weekend are unlike anything a pro baseball team sees on the road.
“I guarantee you don’t see it anywhere else,” Gibbons said of the atmosphere that will await the Jays for their three-game series against the Seattle Mariners, which starts Friday at Safeco Field.
“It’s something different. I really can’t explain it. I don’t think anybody’s seen anything like it. It’s amazing, it really is.”
The opportunity to display that exuberance comes with a price. Western Canadian Jays fans will have to pay dearly for the experience this weekend. The humiliation of having Safeco turned into Rogers Centre Northwest irked the Mariners so much last year that apparently they are determined to empty the wallets of those beerdrinking, baseball-loving Canadian fans this weekend.
It’s either that or, in good capitalist baseball tradition, the Mariners are profiting handsomely at their expense. In an extreme example of premium pricing, the team is doubling the prices in many sections of the stadium.
For example, if Jays fans arrived in time to catch Thursday’s game against the Minnesota Twins, main-level tickets ranged from US$32 to US$77. Want to see Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista and the rest of Canada’s team on Friday, Saturday or Sunday? Those same seats spike from US$68 to US$178. When the American League-leading Houston Astros come to town next month, the prices in those same seats roll back to a low of US$33 and high of US$90.
A seat way out in the left-field bleachers will go for US$38 for the Jays series, but could have been had for US$21 for Thursday’s game.
All teams in Major League Baseball use a form of premium pricing — including the Jays — but rarely are the differences so extreme in the regular season.
You see teams that have fans who travel well in any sport. In the NFL, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys could play on an Alaskan iceberg and their fans would find them. To a lesser extent, the Toronto Maple Leafs get a similar boost around NHL rinks.
But that as many as 20,000 Canadians will drift down to see the Jays in their Pacific Northwest home away from home is exceptional in North American professional sports.
There’s a reasonable chance that those inflated prices will frighten off Mariners fans more than the travelling Jays caravan, but that hardly seems to matter.
“(The increase) is pretty much over the top, but what do you expect?” B.C. Jays fan Terry McKee asked while strolling Seattle’s Pike Place Market early Thursday afternoon. “I’m sure the team gets embarrassed when they are shown up by other team’s fans. It’s definitely not a good look.
“Here’s a thought: Win more, have a better team and then maybe your own fans won’t let this happen.”
Judging by the number of Blue Jays shirts and hats in town already, no amount of gouging is going to keep the team’s fans away from Safeco — or from the city’s ample saloons, either.
While a smattering of Jays fans would always attend games in Seattle, the party caravan gained momentum over the past few seasons in correlation to the Jays’ success. Now it’s become a thing.
“It hasn’t always been that way, but we started winning,” Gibbons said.
“One team in the country, that’s part of it, but we’ve been an entertaining team and a good team the last couple of years.”
It’s not just a rush at the B.C. Washington border. Fans from throughout Western Canada flood the picturesque city on Puget Sound. You will see folks from Calgary and Edmonton in the crowd as well, revelling in the once-a-year opportunity to see their team.
The Seattle series comes at a welcome time for the Jays, who could benefit from the fan boost. A lacklustre three-game set against the Oakland Athletics was salvaged by a two-run Donaldson home run in the 10th inning on Wednesday.
The Jays will face a hot Mariners team that won five in a row before Thursday’s game against the Twins.
“It definitely energizes you,” Gibbons said. “As soon as (the players) walk out of the dugout to stretch and all that, the place is damn near full and the people are going nuts.
“It’s a unique place. ... The key is to keep winning so they keep showing up.”