It is less than three weeks until pitchers and catchers report to the Jays spring training facility. With the last thread having over 300 responses, a new thread is warranted.
Most of the recent news has been about spring training. The first game Blue Jay game is Saturday February 23rd, just over four weeks away and that game will be on the radio.
There will be just four games on the TV, just two of them from Florida. The dates for those are March 3 and March 17. Sportsnet will also show the two games in Montreal. That schedule is way down from last season, or even previous seasons. Is it because they don't think fans will be interested? I wonder what Sportsnet execs are expecting ratings to be like this year as the Jays make no pretense of being competitive.
And related to fans interest I saw yesterday that you will have to pay $41 to sit in the 500 level on opening day. The Jays adopted dynamic pricing last season and there is a note to that effect on their ticketing page. I am sure that some fans, who only go to a limited number of games, might wait to buy until they know that Vlad Jr. will be playing. What will that mean for April crowds, will they be under 15,000? And how will that impact dynamic pricing in April? I don't know how season ticket sales have gone. It will be interesting to see this year what attendance is like and what steps the Jays take to boost attendance. How much will Vlad help attendance when he is called up? What will the Jays do to acknowledge Roy Halladay's election to the HOF? Will they do something on opening day or wait until it is closer to induction day?
The Jays had their winter caravan last weekend in Toronto and it seems to have been well organized and enjoyed by all who went. The Vancouver Canadians hold their hot stove lunch today, with our own #2JBrumfield in attendance. Ross Atkins, Cito Gaston and Robbie Alomar are all in BC for that.
I believe that is all the news for now. Many of our young players will be eager to get going so I expected many of them will be in Dunedin early. Expect to see some reports to that effect soon. What else is going on?
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20190125090939791