Blue Jays team president/CEO Mark Shapiro discussed several topics during a wide-ranging interview with Kaitlyn McGrath of The Athletic (subscription required), including an update on the team’s plans to hopefully play games in Toronto during the 2021 season. Shapiro feels “we have significant positive and objective momentum that would lead us to make a more formal ask sometime in the next month” about setting a somewhat more concrete date for later in the summer about when the Jays could return to the Rogers Centre.
Naturally, much is still up in the air in regards to these plans depending on the state of the pandemic. Shapiro doesn’t “have a potential target date” for when the Jays might again play in their home city, but he has more optimism that more significant discussions could occur now that vaccinations are taking place. Most notably, he also stated that the team has “fairly good information that the vaccine will be accessible to our players and other major-league teams in the next two to three weeks or month.”
“So that if by the end of April or early May all of our players or the bulk of our players and staff are vaccinated and other teams are as well and Toronto is a safe place…the risks start to be mitigated. I would say that when we start to have that material progress that we see the vaccinations actually happening, we will start to formalize an ask.”
This doesn’t cover the possibility of when fans may be able to attend games at Rogers Centre, as Shapiro said “One [step] is just to get back. And the second step will be to get back with some measure of fans.” The city of Toronto has barred all public events until July 1 (Canada Day), and while the Jays could conceivably play empty-stadium games at Rogers Centre before that date, Shapiro acknowledged that in all likelihood, “we can’t come back to Toronto before July 1, unless something changes dramatically.”
The Blue Jays are slated to play regular-season home games in Dunedin through May 2, with homestands scheduled from May 14-24 and June 1-6. It’s probably safe to assume the Jays will remain Florida-bound at least through May, as Shapiro said that “Obviously, we’re probably going to be in Dunedin a little longer than we’ve communicated,” but “playing here [in Dunedin] past early June is going to probably be a challenge, just weather-wise.”
Buffalo remains the probable next stop for the Blue Jays. Buffalo’s Sahlen Field already had something of an overhaul last summer in order to make the park Major League-ready, and Shapiro said that the team is currently working with the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons for more stadium upgrades in preparation for games in 2021.
why not just start at Buffalo if you expect to be there eventually?
Because their Triple-A affiliate happens to play there if you didn’t notice
and their A- affiliate plays in Dunedin
Buffalo is their AAA affiliate. Dunedin is their spring training facility.
yes. and its also where their A- tean plays.
Dunedin presents the same problem once the Low-A Jays team starts playing there. Even if they could share the stadium or if the Low-A team could shift to another ballpark or a secondary field where the old Gulf Coast League Blue Jays Rookie-level team used to play, it would lead to travel issues for the other AAA-East Northeast Division teams, which the reorganization was meant to avoid. Plus, I suspect that having the Low-A team on a practice field would still mean too many people gathered in one place during the pandemic.
A better solution for the Bisons might be an unused minor league park in the Northeast. There’s a AAA park in Pawtucket with the move to Worcester, and two NY-Penn League parks where the teams didn’t move up or join a college or independent league, one in Norwich and one in Staten Island..
Their A ball team can always play at one of the so called “complex” fields, all of which are regulation size and decent quality and more importantly? It’s not going to get anywhere near 20-30 this late in the year at Dunedin, if at all during the year and in NY for April? Never know.
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smart idea for the AAA would have been to schedule road trips for the Bison when the Jays were to be at home (though AAA-MLB doubleheaders would be a neat draw)
Much easier to move a Florida State League game — with meager attendance — to 11am to free up the nights for the big leaguers.
And let’s not forget, Dunedin is already a second home for the Jays. They know the park and its practice and fitness facilities.
Florida in April is a whole lot nicer than Buffalo. Plus the brand new state of the art complex that just got completed
Rockies, Twins, Brewers, etc dont seem to mind the North in April.
Do yourself a favor and check out average April/May temperatures and precipitation rates in those places and compare them to Buffalo.
But further, they have the option of playing April/May in Dunedin. Any team would be out of their minds to choose to play in Buffalo in April/May. Why would it matter where they’re ‘eventually’ going to be? Who cares? They’re already not at home. You do what is best for your team.
To turn your question around, why would anyone start in Buffalo if they could start in Florida?
Brewers have a retractable roof so theres that.
Teams mind (the Twins especially), they just have to shut up and deal with it. The one benefit of not being able to play in your home city is you can pick and choose wherever’s nicest from the alternatives list and switch it up to maintain ideal weather.
And Buffalo can still get snow in April and May
so can Colorado, Minnesota, and Wisconsin
Buffalo gets twice as much snow as either Milwaukee or Minneapolis and a lot more than Denver (90+ inches annually compared to 60+ for Denver and 40+ for the other two).
Jays have the easiest choice in the world: Play April/May in either Florida or Buffalo. I’m not sure why you’re pushing for Buffalo because it would be insane for them to choose it.
Milwaukee has a dome so not sure they should be included.
sorry about that, figured one of them might.
So because 2* teams can have snow outs, a 3rd team should put themselves also at risk of additional weather delayed games?
*Brewers are in dome and don’t apply. And didn’t the Twins used to be?
Darkside they are playing in Dunedin to play the most amount of games possible. If they go to Buffalo in April there is a greater chance of cancelled games due to weather.
Buffalo Bisons will play in Rochester in May if the Jays move to Buffalo. Schedule has Buffalo home games when Rochester is on the road, so they can share the same field. They did this on-purpose to allow the Blue Jays to play in Buffalo.
Weather.
#FreeToronto!
The Jays aren’t leaving Toronto, the 4th largest city in North America. Lots of teams have large empty sections at their stadiums. When they first built the SkyDome every seat was filled. On a brighter note, I bought a ticket for one of the Jays/Angels games in Dunedin.
They will of baseball doesn’t return. Same reason many businesses entrenched in NY & CA have moved since the pandemic to FL and TX. They can operate and do what businesses do – make money. MLB is no different, ie, Expos……
its in the league’s best interest to have at least one team in Canada. that wolnt happen.
Agreed, unless Canada doesn’t allow baseball…. Pandemic is disagreeing with pro-Canadian baseball play right now, and apparently it’s indefinite this point.
Agree Clipper. Have something is to throw out there.. Ticket income for various teams is going to widely vary, at least at the start of the season with some teams only allowing meager amounts of fans into stadiums. We have on the flip side, the Rangers with no restrictions on attendance. Granted it is shared with visiting clubs, but home team takes in the lions share. how long until certain states with draconian laws and restrictions on the books now and took them into account for baseball attendance start screaming about unfair attendance revenue?
I see it happening.
Johnsilver: Perfect illustration. Yes, the equitable sharing/profit argument is one of the resulting problems of what is to come down the road. Toronto, normally a huge city, is going to claim they couldn’t play in their viewing area, had limited seating capacity all the way down in FL, and weren’t permitted to play in their home country…. all providing an unfair advantage to the other big-market teams, thus necessitating some sort of financial allocation due the Blue Jays to sustain their org.
You, sir, are on the money!
Be sure it’s freakin cold in Buffalo in April.
@Le Grand
Any talk of the Bluejays relocating is silly, its mostly Americans who want their American game fully American. Im not a snow flake, it doesn’t bother me as it’s mostly a minority opinion. Their combined anger or dislike of a Canadian franchise is wasted energy that would be better used in another capacity.
We are smart fans, We will only support winning franchises (except maple leaf fans) if you provide a winning product and a chance at championships we will fill capacity in stadiums around the country. If you treat your franchise like the Pirates in Canada, yes there would be a chance viewership and attendance would drop to a point of talking relocation.
The Grizzlies were victim of poor ownership and inept front office staff, they never had a chance at success. Look at the Raptors, they are making handsome profits even during covid and having a bad season. Championships generate dollars
The Expos faithful have full rights to be angry with Loria and MLB as a whole, they legitimately had the worst owner I can think of besides Marg Schott. They also had a potential World series taken from then by a strike that was an owner initiated lockout after back to back WS banners flying north of the Border
The Jets got their team back as well.
Canadian dollar was also in the 60-cent range when the Grizz played. Plus Vancouver is not Toronto. Different market altogether.
“We are smart fans”. Right, smart at making excuses. Montreal. Baseball team gone. Ottawa. Baseball team gone. Edmonton. Baseball team gone. Calgary. Baseball team gone. Vancouver AAA. Baseball team gone. Smart fans, or not baseball fans at all. Canada is for hockey. it’s the sport they support.
Vancouver Canadians still exist. Not gone.
It’s only been a short season team. Used to be AAA team but failed., like all the others I mentioned. Looks like Americans know more about baseball in Canada. than Canadians do, which tells you how popular baseball is in Canada. But that’s ok. It’s a good market for hockey.
LeGrande
If you know so much then you would know that Vancouver is now the Jays full season High A team. Thanks for playing.
Want to see the popularity of the Jays in Canada coast to coast? Go to a Mariners game when the Jays are in town.
Le Grande I just wanted to see an accurate post from you and we continue to wait on that. There have been hockey teams at all levels in Canada leave and you neglected to mention or understand the circumstances.
It’s great you have the gold coin on your profile but it’s not too much to ask for some accuracy if you post from a position of hate.
Well this comment section won’t make sense to future readers, so many comments deleted
Do we really have to close a Jays comment section next?
This was ridiculous. No point commenting further eh?
Bottom line is that Jays can’t play in Canada; they have to play in the US, for at least half the season. At most? 2021 and indefinitely thereafter.
Why? Canada is shut down, by the authors own writing, whereas the US isn’t. Therefore, as a result, there will be some consequences, some adverse affects, and a very unforgiving, inconvenient baseball regiment for the Jays this season. That’s what happens when a different country controls the play of one team out of 30.
Hopefully, that’s not too offensive for those with thinner skin…… but it’s truthful.
But Canada isn’t closed, or locked down
The Border is mutually closed.
I don’t understand your point
Clipper there’s more to it; travellers from outside Canada are being forced to quarantine. If they allow sports to go about their business without abiding by the sale rules and protocols there will be some blowback.
1, my point is /was Canada has closed public events like this, whereas the US hasn’t, which I’ve written already. Nonetheless, what you both have written is All true, and I agree with you both on both your points.
WAGH: You are correct and I agree. Very valid points as well, and critically important to note.
I’m not stating that because I made my point, you’re wrong @Jaysfan… Just adding more reasons to my point, that’s all. You are correct as well.
yes. still doesn’t mean they are at any risk of having to move.
Darkside the only way the Jays move is if Rogers sells the team. More likely they will choose not to spend more money beyond this year if they suffer losses. Rogers is a massive company with an ability to generate income in other areas beyond baseball.
Darkside: I think you’re confusing my response to another with a belief they’re actually going to move. I don’t feel that way, to clarify, but citing the obvious problem with one team regulated by a different country that doesn’t allow operation right now poses significant business issues for them.
Perhaps, I have conflated my confidence in ownership/MLB’s willingness to move, rather than lose a full second season of dough, with the prevailing problem for the Jays right now – they can’t play in Canada, therefore must play in the US.
The first doesn’t necessitate the second, but it sure will precede it if it happens, given the current international state of affairs as they relate to the pandemic/business/MLB.
Man someone better tell Oakland, Tampa and Marlins that 1 or 2 seasons of no fans in the stands means you gotta move the team immediately.
Now, that’s funny….. lol.
Why not have them play in Pittsburgh? That city needs a major league team.
OUCH!!!
The city didn’t feel that this was the case when the Jays attempted to do so last season.
Let’s face it the Blue Jays are not even worthy to play in Toronto. They should stay in Dunedin or go back to Buffalo. The Jays aren’t winning anything this season. Smh. Might as well as just forfeit the games if their winning nothing.
Yankee- by your logic the 2.2 billion +- the Yankees have spent in the last decade without winning a WS means they are not worthy of playing in NYC .
Nice to see the Jays are so into your head. A young team on the rise vs an injury prone stagnant org.
The per capita death rate in the US is about 3 times that in Canada. They don’t want us stupid Americans up there. So we stay here and they stay there. It would be the same if the numbers were reversed. They wouldn’t want their stupid Canadians traveling to the US. The object of the game is for each country to get their act together. Regardless of the numbers. It’s like traveling between states down here. People don’t want stupid people coming to their state. They’ve already got more stupid people than they can handle. It all just boils down to stupid people. That’s why we’re at 554,611 people losing their lives so far. Stupid. People.
@whyhayzee- please don’t take my comments seriously I was just kidding around the whole time. The dumbest thing possible would be to play in Toronto. The Blue Jay players would obviously have to keep Quarantining every time they left or kept coming back to Toronto for at least 2 weeks. So that doesn’t make any sense. The Jays are much better off playing in Dunedin or Buffalo or wherever they want to play in the U.S. Just glad the 2021 season will be played for 162 games. Hopefully covid will be over as soon as possible.
there are stupid people any country and the leaders of Canada are smart enough to know that. its not as much about bordering this country as much as bordering any country.
sorry, misread that, disregard.
That was kind of my point. Traveling between countries isn’t completely different than traveling between states. I am super happy that baseball is on track and that vaccines are available. The pandemic is not over and we will still lose lives but we can do more than we could before the vaccines. I don’t want any more steps backward but that requires smart and careful behavior, not a free for all. For some, it’s been a free for all the whole time. Shameful.
Whyhayzee: yeah, nobody disputes what Canada is trying to do; whether that is efficacious is a whole different topic I’ll refrain from engaging in because of its sheer volatility.
Doesn’t change the fact they can’t play baseball in Canada…. at all. I’m not sure why it’s such an offensive topic that Canada won’t allow MLB to play. I guess my only challenge is to those who think this vaccine will solve the woes of MLB-pandemic coexistence. Many new strains, unproven vaccine, we simply don’t know, just like pre-2020, nobody really thought this would happen, it did.
I don’t personally care if the Jays play the next 5 years in Florida and call themselves Toronto while making 1/10 the profit margin and go broke doing it…. it’s up to them. But while they play at home in Canada, Canadian rules apply. In fact, I say, rename them the Scrub Jays (Florida’s protected bird species) and leave them. Now, I’m going to go buy me some Florida Scrub Jays of Dunedin tickets and see some baseball because I live in the Land o’ the Free!
Just out of curiosity, I found an article about the CFL, and here’s an excerpt:
“Unlike baseball, hockey, and basketball, football players can’t play more than a single game every five days. The five days in between games cut it close because football is so physical.
If the CFL must cancel a game, they can make up for it the following week, which is what the NFL did. The Canadian Football League also has a couple of other advantages that most other sports leagues don’t.
There are only eight teams in the CFL. Also, Ambrosie and CFL schedule makers will start play on May 23. By then, if North America is lucky, we will be on our way to herd immunity.”
Not super informative, but at least Canada is making an attempt at having football in 2021, unlike in 2020. We will have to see if that has any impact.
Yeah, that’s cool. I really hope they do for everyone’s sake. And I hope we’re all past this pandemic so we can get back to bickering about which team/player is better, and getting offended at that nonsense. Seems much more fun that way….
554,611 old and/or unhealthy people died slightly earlier than they would have otherwise. As a healthy middle aged person who had Covid in January, it wasn’t a big deal at all. I’ve seriously had hang nails that were worse than covid. We never should have shut down society for what amounts to a cold for 99 percent of people.
Tough situation to be in. Shapiro and The jays are handling it very well. Imagine having to deal with Trudeau and his policies and the Canadian dictators edicts. Way to go Mark Shapiro.
The hypocrisy has no limits at every level of government. We are fortunate not to have too many incoming travellers/tourism when this started.
Jimmertee: That’s a really astute observation that could easily be overlooked while concentrating on the polarizing debate that colors the narratives of this thing. Definitely a positive where there is a whole bunch of negatives….
Jimmer
Once this is all over – suggest you travel more and learn the true definition of a dictator. Hyperbole seems to be the new it thing for some.
Marko – suggest you ask owners of businesses that lost everything in Canada, especially in Toronto, before you start commenting on someone who has clearly experienced more life than you. Go to Toronto. You do not have a clue.
WildBillTetley
How did I know you would respond with that sort of comment. NOW I know you for who you are, as you used the exact same comment last year in one of our “discussions” .
Is that one of your fall-back phrases ? Shows a total lack of intellect. A leopard never changes their spots .
So you’d have preferred 4-5 x as many deaths and have Canada follow the path of the ex-prez down south or the right wing buffoon in Brazil.
Nice to see you put money over life. Says alot about who you are. But then under any of your alias it becomes apparent real fast the type of person you really are. Lot’s of small business friends of mine have adapted and innovated to generate new revenue streams that might be too complicated for you to get your head around.
FYI- I have lived and worked all over the world and experienced more in my 53 years then you would in 3 lifetimes.
Care to make another of your arrogant cookie cutter retorts? Go take your HCQ and read your alt right conspiracy theories you clown.
Actually HCQ works, the lancenet study that demonized it was retracted. Also quite convenient that the flu is almost not existent the last year.
Funny that no 1st world country used it after June of last year. I could reference dozen of studies that says it does not . As for the flu You do not think that all the measures- hand washing-social distancing and mask wearing has anything to do with it.?
Because doctors were being prevented from supplying it because of insurance companies. And if the flu is almost non existent because of social distancing and mask wearing than why has the same not happened for COVID-19.
How did the wash women who close Comments Sections for any virus, do I or other terrible topic allow this one to stay open. Bunch of nanny state powder puffs
The chalice from the palace has the brew that is true!
Whyhazee
The vessel with the pestle…
If you remember that so clearly you must have seen Mantle and Maris play
(For all the younguns its from an old movie ‘A CT Yankee in King Arthur’s Court’)
Because unlike other topics this ones speaks about baseball-relevant information as it pertains to the virus, or vice versa. It really isn’t bad and it’s not political (yet) which is the most important.
I don’t want it to happen, but in some ways I do , and it would make the government the eternal bad-guy… surprised I haven’t heard or read more talk on just move the team south of the border permanently
someone correct me if I’m wrong…
but last year I thought they WERE allowed to play, but only if they quarantined in hotel while in town and that wasn’t appealing to the players so they said No….
Is this year the same situation?
Gvn
That is wrong actually. They were allowed to have the “summer camp” at home because the players quarantined and stayed in the attached hotel in a bubble..
The team proposed the same thing for the regular season for themselves and visiting teams but because it meant frequent border crossings and a 14 day quarantine impossible, the federal government turned it down.
The A ball franchise can play at Jack Russell stadium, where they played the entire 2019 season while the Blue Jays Dunedin home was being renovated. Jack Russell is the former Phillies training facility and it has been kept up and used by local high schools and colleges. It just a puddle jump from Dunedin.
Venues can host more than one game in a day