Round the Horn owner Kristin McNeill, centre, embraces Blue Jays fans Matt English, left, and Kristie Nairn during the second game of the American League Championship Series on Monday. Like other businesses, Round the Horn has benefited from fans turning up to watch their team.Duane Cole/The Globe and Mail
Bars filled to capacity. Merchandise flying off the shelves. Hotel rooms booked at short notice.
Business owners are some of the most ardent fans of the Toronto Blue Jays’ current push through the Major League Baseball playoffs, riding a weeks-long surge in sales that could boost their bottom line for the whole year.
Interest in the Blue Jays has skyrocketed through the team’s surprising and nail-biting race to win their notoriously competitive division. An emphatic dismissal of the archrival New York Yankees from the playoffs only added to the sense of excitement.
Even as the Jays have struggled to start their series against the Seattle Mariners, dropping the first two games, fans have turned up to watch.
Restaurants and bars are some of the biggest beneficiaries. With Canada’s economy in a slump, diners had shown signs of tightening their belts by eating out less often, but are now crowding into watering holes to cheer on the Jays and soak up the fan base’s euphoric feeling.
The Dizzy Gastro Sports Pub on Toronto’s trendy Roncesvalles Avenue has been at its 56-person capacity every time the Jays play of late, with another 10 patrons on a patio when the weather is nice.
“For a small place like us, it definitely doubles the night’s sales,” owner and chef Chris Murie said, and that could boost total weekly sales by 20 per cent or more. “It’s huge. It’s really big.”
Kristin McNeill rallies guests of her baseball-themed bar during Monday night’s game between the Jays and Mariners.Duane Cole/The Globe and Mail
One block over, “it’s tough to get a spot” at baseball-themed bar Round the Horn when the Jays play, owner Kristin McNeill said. She might get 10 customers on a normal fall Monday, but if the Jays are playing, it’ll be 50 to 60, which is the bar’s capacity.
Total sales are up “probably like 40 per cent for the playoff run,” she said.
And the frenzy is not only in Toronto. As Canada’s only major-league team, the Jays are drawing crowds across the country.
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Red Card Sports Bar + Eatery in Vancouver might sell $2,000 of food and drink on a typical slow night, but with a Jays playoff game on – even starting earlier in the day in the Pacific time zone – the bar has been filling up and taking in $3,500 to $5,000 in sales per game. The Mariners are an added draw, with the city’s relative proximity to Seattle.
“I think it’s been boosting pretty much every bar and restaurant in Vancouver,“ said Red Card’s general manager, David Gilley. ”Toronto is basically Canada’s team and everyone rallies behind them.”
Stores that sell Jays merchandise and apparel are also scrambling to keep up with a rush of customers.
A Carlos Delgado bobblehead lies among a collection of sports memorabilia on display in Round the Horn.Duane Cole/The Globe and Mail
At the Lids store at the CF Sherway Gardens shopping mall in Toronto’s west end, staff set up a dedicated wall of Jays baseball caps facing the store’s entrance. “We know that that is going to get those customers to just pick any of the Jays hats,” said Nana Ali, a staff member at the store.
But store manager Krish Kesar said the display is also designed to pull attention away from gaps in the store’s merchandise. “Half of my wall is just empty because all the [Blue Jays] product is gone,” he said.
The Sherway store’s customer traffic last week was up 15 per cent, and “if we have the product,” nearly all of that turns into sales, Mr. Kesar said. The chain’s store at Union Station, the busy Toronto transit hub near the Rogers Centre, sold $25,000 of Jays apparel on Saturday, roughly five times what would be typical.
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Mr. Kesar got a delivery of 15 Jays hats with the league’s “Postseason” crest on the side, priced at a premium $59 each, and sold 13 the day they arrived. Retro hats with a white front panel, which the Jays have worn in recent games, “are selling like crazy, we don’t even have enough to keep up,” Ms. Ali said.
She even sold two Seattle Mariners caps on Sunday.
The chief executive officer of the Greater Toronto Hotel Association, Sara Anghel, doesn’t have hard numbers yet but is expecting a positive ripple effect for the city’s hospitality industry. When Toronto hosted the NHL All-Star Weekend last year, the sector “had a positive uptick,” she said, and playoff runs stir more devotion among fans.
The Jays’ playoff run has been a boon to bars and restaurants after a few challenging years for business owners.Duane Cole/The Globe and Mail
The payment processor Moneris has also predicted a jump in spending, based on data from the Toronto Maple Leafs’ playoff run earlier this year.
Jays fans’ willingness to open their wallets has been a welcome relief for bar and restaurant owners after a few tough years, starting with the COVID-19 pandemic. More recently, high inflation and tariffs have driven up the cost to stock a kitchen with food and drink.
“I couldn’t quite keep up with the rising prices on my menu. You can only change your menu so many times a year, and so it was really hard that prices were fluctuating, especially with meats,“ Mr. Murie said. ”One day they were one price, next day they do something else. And it was so hard to pin it down that we lost money last year for the first time in a long, long time.”
When baseball fans crowd in for a game, most of the bar’s costs are already fixed, so the extra sales have a higher profit margin, he said. And that has helped restaurant owners catch up on their bills.
But it is hard to plan for a fairytale playoff run. Mr. Murie missed out on what could have been strong sales on Sunday when the Jays opened their series against Seattle. He had a long-standing plan to stay closed so he could cook and give away about 20 Thanksgiving meals to neighbourhood families in need. He had promised his staff the night off.
Mark Turnbull and Stephanie Clementi react to a play during the Jays’ second game against the Mariners.Duane Cole/The Globe and Mail
At Round the Horn, Ms. McNeill hires security on busy nights and has added more staff. “I have mercenaries coming in to bartend because we run such a bare bones staff as it is,” she said, but “it’s stressful to try and schedule the week.”
She was expecting to be busy for the first two Jays-Mariners games on Sunday and Monday, but couldn’t predict whether customers’ Thanksgiving plans would keep them away. Road games in Seattle should still draw crowds to bars and restaurants, as long as fans still have hope the team can turn things around. But off-nights between games can be quieter than usual.
“Every time I send out a schedule, it’s just subject to change,” she said. She tells her staff: “Sorry guys, I’m trying.”
After the Jays’ long-weekend games against the Mariners were scheduled, she said much the same thing to her family.
“My mom called, she’s like, ‘I guess Thanksgiving’s cancelled?’” Ms. McNeill said. “Yeah, Thanksgiving’s cancelled. This is my life for the next couple of weeks.”