Are the Jays really playing in a second-rate baseball market?
July 13th, 2009 | by jays1992 |
By Paul Bruno
The glass looks half empty in Blue Jays’ land this morning. They’ve faded badly in the last few weeks and enter the All-Star break two games under the .500 mark, with a record of 44-46 after a very disappointing 2-8 road trip. To make things worse, all those games were played against divisional opponents.
That result all but eliminated the Jays from the chance to contend for a playoff spot in the second half and it will likely lead to a rash of speculation about possible salary dumps and player movement, with the goal of shedding payroll.
This is the part that bothers me.
The Jays are owned by the biggest cable television company in Canada, Rogers Communications, and you would think that the powers that lead this company would like to continue their late owner’s dream of building that empire into the centerpiece of Toronto’s sports scene.
It was only 17 years ago, when the Jays were on the verge of wining consecutive World Series with the highest payrolls in all of baseball and were playing to packed houses at the Skydome (now renamed as the Rogers Centre).
Jays’ front office types are crying the blues over much-reduced attendance figures and lower revenue streams that result. They talk of having to reduce the payroll of the ballclub to remain financially viable. Now rumors are flying that they can’t afford to compete to retain the services of their best player, Roy Halladay.
What about the axiom of spending money to make money? Toronto is like any other sports market. To borrow a line from the movie, Field of Dreams, “if you build it they will come.” This city, just like any other will support a winner.
This is the biggest metropolitan area that caters to only one team, in all the Majors. The only larger markets all have two teams splitting the local fan bases in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
So, sounding like a low-end baseball market doesn’t make a lot of sense for the Jays.
To the management of this baseball team, we say enough with the snow job. Spend some dough so the Jays can soar once again.
