The Toronto Blue Jays made a bit of history this week, officially inking Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to one of the largest deals in sports history.
Guerrero’s US$500-million contract over 14 years is the fifth-biggest ever by an athlete, the most by any player on a Canadian team, and the third-biggest ever in the MLB behind only Juan Soto and Shohei Ohtani.
But even though other deals might end up with higher dollar values in the actual amount of the deal, there’s something no athlete making more than Guerrero can say is in their contract clause.
As per baseball insider Jon Heyman, Guerrero Jr. gets four premium tickets to each home game, but also a full suite inside of the Rogers Centre.
Vlad Guerrero Jr.
Jays$500M/14
Signing Bonus – $325M (payable 2025-2039)
$17M – 2026, 2027
$16M – 2028
$15M – 2029
$14,5M- 2030-32
$12,5M – 2033, 2034
$11,5M – 2035
$10,5M – 2036
$7M – 2037
$6,25M – 2038, 2039Awards bonuses
4 premium seats, 1 suite
Full No Trade
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) April 10, 2025
For a ballpark — if you’ll pardon the pun — range of how much one of those suites would cost to buy outright, suites start at C$4,484 for 12 tickets for a single outfield suite for Monday’s home game against the Atlanta Braves, or C$5,338 for the same suite in an upcoming game against the New York Yankees.
The Blue Jays have both single (12 people) and double (24 people) suites available to the general public for purchase on single-game and multi-package options.
Averaged out at the cheapest price over 81 home games over 14 seasons, that’s a dollar value of C$5.4 million, without adjusting to inflation. And that’s only considering the cheapest possible price, with Guerrero’s suite likely better than the cheapest option.
Even if we double that value to an estimated value of over $10 million, they could get in sales from that suite over the course of the deal, it’s a no-brainer for Blue Jays management and ownership to include.
First off, suites at Rogers Centre are often left empty and unused for much of a long baseball season, meaning they’re simply taking up space when not in use. Guerrero could obviously afford to buy his own suite, but it’d be a bit strange for Toronto to negotiate such a deal with him after making him one of the highest-paid athletes in the world.
And lastly, it’s a gesture that goes beyond the dollar value, as it’s hard to impress people who already have more money than the common person could ever dream of.
Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images
