The Toronto Blue Jays ranked ninth in MLB attendance last season, but will they have trouble drawing fans to Rogers Centre in 2025?
The Blue Jays open their season Thursday afternoon in the first of a four-game series versus the Baltimore Orioles. While Opening Day is sold out, plenty of seats are still available for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
There are still plenty of seats on Ticketmaster that remain up for grabs for the coming days, including entire rows down the first and third-base lines.
The stands are looking pretty empty for the first weekend of the Jays’ season, though the Home Opener is sold out.
Perhaps fans are just waiting for warmer months to begin attending, though you can’t help but wonder if other factors are at play.
Blue Jays fans fed up with management
When you win games, fans will come in waves. That was evidenced during some of the Blue Jays’ stacked rosters in 2015 and 2016 and even for a good chunk of time during the Vladimir Guerrero Jr./Bo Bichette era.
The Blue Jays didn’t do a lot of winning last season, finishing dead-last in the AL East with a 74-88 record. Those struggles, paired with failing to land some of the top-tier free agents they pursued in the offseason, have many skeptical that this team will get back into the playoffs anytime soon.
On top of that, there is also a lot of frustration over the fact that both Bichette and Guerrero Jr., specifically the latter, have yet to be signed to long-term extensions.
Both players are set to become free agents after the 2025 season. Should they wind up moving on from both, there is a chance this organization is headed for a rebuild, which could result in even more struggles to sell tickets in the coming years.
Now, it’s worth noting that struggling to sell tickets for opening week has been an issue before for the Blue Jays.
After starting on the road last season, they returned home for a three-game series versus the Seattle Mariners, where they had crowds of 40,069, 31,310, and 22,960, respectively. The difference, however, was that those games took place from Monday through Wednesday.
The 2022 season may serve as a better indicator, as the Blue Jays opened their season at home in a three-game series versus the Texas Rangers. The series, which spanned from Friday to Sunday, saw them draw in crowds of 45,022, 43,386 and 31,549.
Based on what appears available via Ticketmaster, they will be lucky to hit those numbers in games two through four.
The coming months will be telling, but frustration towards management may result in a sparsely attended Rogers Centre over the course of the 2025 season.
