[Curry] Regarding Ohtani and the Blue Jays: the Jays have invested $300M to renovate Rogers Centre and were 8th in MLB in attendance at 3.02 million last season. With Ohtani’s dazzling play, they surely believe those attendance figures would rise and help pay off that investment.

20 comments

1. “Help pay off” is one thing but it’s been said by two former General managers on MLB network radio in the past week that 1. MLB teams rarely profit and 2. It’s VERY tough to make money on paying Ohtani 50 million a season

2. Bruh I’ll chip in a 5$ increase on my bill get it done. Pull some mark cuban tactic, lock him in a room or something.

3. Spending $500 million to help pay off $300 million is my kind of maths

4. Ohtani is an absolute money-printing machine.

   Just watch this well-done documentary by “Baseball Doesn’t Exist” and how he’s easily worth $700 million without playing a single game.

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6lXHNLePjo

5. We would have the best attendance in the league with ohtani.

   Toronto love’s bandwagoning and supporting their teams when they are winning or hyped up.

6. Surely any team going after Ohtani is banking on more than adding bumbs to seats.

   * The Jays can certainly sell more tickets but also higher price seats given the new renovations + the new membership clubs they’re building under the stands
   * Merchandise sales would definitely increase but that is shared with the league in different ways
   * Ad / Sponsorship / Partnership revenue would be way up
   * Lastly, I suspect Rogers is looking at a dramatic increase in broadcast revenue with this signing

7. This man has cracked the code…the owners of MLB teams are trying to make money off the investment by selling tickets. Man I thought they were philanthropists. /s

   This is what journalism has become…

8. I will do my part and buy an overpriced Ohtani jersey day 1 if he signs. That will cover 0.0003% of the contract, the ball is in your court Rogers.

9. Tell you what. I’d buy his jersey immediately

10. I am willing to go to more games if he signs. It might bankrupt me but it’ll be worth it 😂

11. Already out my house in NYC suburbs on sale to move back to Toronto and watch the Jays. Ohtani sign please or I might be divorced.

12. “Do it”

    (in Emperor Palpatine’s voice)

13. Jays season tickets pricing being jacked up huge for next season from what I’ve heard… plus overall affordability for the common folk is deteriorating across the board… a good portion of Jays game attendance is your average Joe with wife and kids at side… Maybe some ppl will pay to see some big name(s), but I think many others won’t be willing to spend a few hundred dollars+ for a day at the park. I’d predict attendance largely unchanged regardless of the move(s) they may or may not make.

14. Every good agent uses Toronto as bait (and fools) to drive up the price of the other, usually winning team.

    Its always the same old song and dance ‘They are the richest owners’ ‘Playing for a whole country’ ‘They own their own broadcast rights and can sell the ads’.

    I sure hope Im wrong this time but Toronto is ‘always in the mix’ but never seems to be the victor.

15. I think…and I’m trying to temper-*really* trying to temper my expectations…but I think we’re gonna get him

16. Yeah sure. Make the math work, Curry.

17. Always fun when media guys talk finance. I bet this guy believes in Greedflation.

    covering 300 million in operational (reno) costs is going to take well over a billion dollars in Revenue. If they drive 10% of rrevenue (a very high target) to the bottomline that would be 3 billion in revenues just to cove the expense of the renovations.

    Ohtani is valuable but he’s not that valuable.

    A renovation as per the Rogers Center is a long term investment and adds immediate value to their balance sheet.

    Ohtani makes business sense but it has nothing to do with the reno.

18. If the Jays sign Ohtani I promise to buy Sportsnet Now and report my buddies who illegally stream games!

19. Went to see Ohtani pitch at the dome last season, and it was obvious there were a lot of people there just to see the man. Dude was getting a fair amount of applause as well. I’d imagine there will def be a boost in attendance based on that and also it might have left Ohtani with a good impression of the city

20. No one wants to play for the fucking Blow Jays