The Jays are on a tear and people all of a sudden care about baseball for the first time in 22 years – and no one is happier about it than businesses in downtown Toronto.
The Jays are selling out games, attracting droves of first-time and out-of-town fans, and boasting attendance figures well beyond average, which contributes to many restaurants and bars around the Rogers Centre Skydome attracting twice the usual number of customers.
“It’s been a full house here every night there’s a game,” says Milagro bar manager Frederico Munoz. “Right now, they are winning, and that’s a win for us, too.”
Because we all know winning in sports goes hand-in-hand with drinking after sports.
“We schedule more staff this time around than we do for normal Jays games. There’s a big difference this season with the traffic we are getting,” adds Lone Star Texas Grill manager Rojna Miripour, who says the bandwagon effect is making up for a disappointing period for business during the Pan Am Games. Many locals fled the core to avoid tourist crowds, which, as it turned out, didn’t really come anyway.
The Jays will play away from home until August 29th when they host the Detroit Tigers, a series that will likely provide another major boost to business as the race for the division title heats up and away fans make the trip across the border.
Astronomical spending on sports – perhaps something Mr. Harper could have considered in his Economic Action Plan.
[ad_bb1]