Photo of a poorly attended game at the Rogers Centre during a Toronto Blue Jays game. 

Image Credit: Stefano A. (CC BY 2.0)

Toronto Blue Jays President and CEO Mark Shapiro has been under plenty of scrutiny from Blue Jays fans since taking over the reigns in 2015. The Toronto Blue Jays haven’t made the playoffs in three seasons and have fired several managers since Shapiro took over as team CEO. Earlier this week, Shapiro said that he anticipated Toronto Blue Jays’ home attendance to be down during the 2019 season. An omen to the kind of team the Toronto Blue Jays will field in 2019.

In fact, Shapiro said that the Toronto Blue Jays may not be competitive for two more seasons and are in a rebuilding phase. The Toronto Blue Jays led the American League in attendance during the 2016 and 2017 seasons. In 2018, the team drew just over 2.3M fans during the entire season after drawing more than 3M fans in 2017. Nevertheless, Shapiro still expects the Toronto Blue Jays to finish in the middle of the pack in Major League Baseball overall attendance in 2019. Especially after Vladimir Guerrero Jr. makes his Major League debut.

In other related news, the Toronto Blue Jays are currently renovating Dunedin Stadium, the team’s spring training ballpark in Dunedin, Florida. The renovation project will be completed by Spring 2020 and will cost more than $80 million to complete. There has also been plenty of speculation that the Toronto Blue Jays will renovate the Rogers Centre in coming years. A renovation to the Rogers Centre will be necessary to keep up with the rest of the league and improve the overall fan experience.

  

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