As costs of watching sports go through roof, is anyone having any fun?

Article content

You have heard this before: “We’re renovating the building, giving you new seats, so your tickets are getting more expensive.”

Article content

Vancouver Canucks fans know this well. Toronto Blue Jays fans too.

Article content

Article content

Plenty of season ticket holders have taken on the gut punch — plenty of tickets in Toronto have doubled since 2022, even worse than what Canucks fans have faced, who have weathered increases of up to 40 per cent over the same period.

Fans who have been forced out have accused the teams they love of “sports renoviction”.

And those price increases extend to the other ways to watch sports too — to sports streaming services. Rogers, owners of the Sportsnet Plus streaming app, jacked the annual price of their premium service, which lets fans watch every game in the NHL and a host of other sports, by 30 per cent. Even the basic subscription price went up. The surge in cost, most industry insiders figured, was about pure greed.

Article content

Article content

The winnowing of season-ticket holder benefits is a similar case. Fan loyalty treats are on the decline. Blue Jays fans used to get a “giveaway box” featuring bobbleheads and more. Canucks fans haven’t had perks like that in a long time — it’s been years since ticket-holders got a jersey on the house.

There was a time in Vancouver, as well, that you couldn’t just call up and score a ticket for the year — you had to sit on the waiting list for years. The buzz isn’t what it used to be.

But there’s little doubt when you look at how this Blue Jays season is going, or how the Canucks’ season went in 2023-24, that winning makes up for a lot. Fans crave the buzz of winning above all else. And that’s what Rogers and the Aquilinis continue to bank on, that fans will shell out of pocket to see the best sports in their city.

Article content

Fans are there to watch the athletes perform. When they see their team win, they have fun.

But it’s hard at times not to wonder if the players are having fun. We know they want to win, and I’m pretty sure most of them are having fun — they certainly care about performance. Tyler Myers, I know, has tons of fun playing the game. Dakota Joshua has tons of passion — hopefully, Toronto Maple Leafs fans will quickly learn this.

We know that when the team was winning, J.T. Miller was having fun. Brock Boeser’s smile, no doubt, tells us he has fun. He has admitted that when he’s struggling he is definitely not having fun.

I found myself pondering all this in the wake of Scottie Scheffler’s thoughts last week about why he plays. He plays to win, he acknowledged. (I mean … obviously, you’re the greatest on the planet right now). He loves to practise, to make his game better.

Article content

But none of it is as fulfilling as being a family man or his faith, he said.

“I love the challenge. I love being able to play this game for a living. It’s one of the greatest joys of my life. But does it fill the deepest wants and desires of my heart? Absolutely not,” he said.

The athletes press on because they are getting paid and, most of the time, because they’re having fun. There is a recognition that it’s a means to an end.

The fans want to have fun too. They want to have a good time and enjoy themselves. They don’t just want to be seen as bags of money.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

Article content