Fans have to ante up to watch Jays in playoffs
Hopeful Toronto Blue Jays fans will be able to start purchasing post-season tickets soon.
The Blue Jays will begin selling playoff tickets to season ticket holders on Wednesday, with sales expanding to new season ticket holders, flex-pack holders and eventually the general public over the coming weeks.
Fans who purchased their flex packs before Dec. 5 will be able to buy post-season tickets on Sept. 2, while those who bought flex packs after Dec. 5 will have to wait until Sept. 4 for their playoff tickets.
Six-pack holders will be allowed to buy post-season tickets on Sept. 8, with the sale expanding to new 2016 season-ticket holders on Sept. 10.
Members of the general public can start buying post-season tickets on Sept. 23.
Toronto has been one of the hottest teams in Major League Baseball, rising to the top of the American League East after a series of trades in late July brought ace David Price and all-star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, among others, to the team.
If the Blue Jays hold on to a playoff berth it will be Toronto’s first post-season appearance since the 1993 World Series.
A single ticket in the upper deck will cost a minimum of $50 for the wild card play-in game or the American League Division Series, while a single seat for those games directly behind home plate will go for $425.
Those prices climb for the AL Championship Series and the World Series, with a ticket to the latter costing $160 in the 500s and $1,400 for the best seats in Rogers Centre.
However, all tickets must be purchased in strips, with a potential buyer getting a seat for every game of a series — ALDS, ALCS or World Series. That means the bare minimum cost — upper deck seats for the wild card and ALDS — would be three tickets for a total of $150. Selling playoff tickets by series strips is a MLB policy.
By comparison, the AL Westleading Houston Astros are holding a random draw to select which fans will have the opportunity to purchase post-season tickets.
The New York Yankees, Toronto’s co-leaders in the AL East, have yet to list post-season tickets on their website.
The AL Central-leading Kansas City Royals also have yet to post playoff ticket information.
A spokesperson from SeatGeek. com, a website that aggregates prices for secondary-market tickets, projects that the Blue Jays will have one of the most expensive post-season tickets in baseball. He cited Toronto’s long playoff drought and recent hot streak as factors in driving up the cost of scalped tickets.