HOW ABOUT THOSE BLUE JAYS!

Tickets will be selling fast if opening series is any indication of fan support.

The boys are back in town and the buzz couldn’t be better. The Toronto Blue Jays had their best Spring Training session, and are starting the season off with a bang. Fans are responding well.

Baseball writer Kevin Glew recently pulled together some amazing statistics showing attendance records for the home opening series for the Blue Jays in a recent column  and he says that the early season numbers this year are very promising. “In examining attendance figures from the first three home games of every Blue Jays’ season since 1994 – the year after the club’s last playoff appearance – it’s evident that fans are, indeed, speaking with their feet and making the trek to the dome so far in 2012,” Glew says. “If you’re going to jump on the Blue Jays’ bandwagon, now is the time to do it.”

The Buzz is Building
There is a lot of buzz for the young, exciting team taking the field this year, and they are attracting younger fans too. At the matinee game last week, when you might expect seniors, retirees, and boomers, there were a lot of kids in the stands. The Jays had reached out to school and youth groups and they responded.  As did many fans. The Home Opener on April 9 was a sell-out, and tickets were hard to come by.  Over the three days of the opening series, more than 100,000 fans came out to The Rogers Centre, which, according to Glew, broke attendance records set in the mid-90s just after the Jays had their back-to-back World Series victories.

“This really is an exciting time to watch this team,” Glew says. “They are really starting to put everything together out there: stronger pitching, great batting, and excellent fielding—they are really building to be Canada’s team, not just Toronto’s, and the team is showing some depth in its farm teams too, so there will be many players to draw on for years to come.”

Something else that’s creating buzz?—the new logo, and new uniforms.  Swag is selling like crazy.

A Wildcard Spot?
And what does the future—or at least the season—hold for this team? Of course there are a lot of good teams in the American League (AL) East, and right now it’s anyone’s game, but Glew predicts that there just might be room for a Wildcard spot into post-season play. And if the Blue Jays are winning games in September that really affect the season’s outcome those crowds seen during opening week won’t be a fluke.

“We could see record attendance in September too, especially if the [Boston] Red Sox and the [New York] Yankees are in that mix, as they usually are. Their fans come up to Toronto and seem to really rev-up the Jays fans.”

Yes, you could stay home or go to a sports bar and watch the game on a big-screen, or watch it on your small screen when you’re on the go, but you really can’t match the enthusiasm of the live crowd. You really do have to be there!

Get your tickets before they’re all gone.