Blue Jays to bring fall boost to local businesses

TORONTO – A clinched playoff spot with home-field advantage for the Toronto Blue Jays will bring a much-needed boost to local businesses this fall.

The best-of-three American League wild-card series is set to take place at the Rogers Centre starting Friday after the Blue Jays secured the top seed on Monday.

Business more than doubles during this kind of event, said Paul Bognar, president of Service Inspired Restaurants, which owns multiple restaurants along Front Street near the ballpark.

After more than two years of subdued business due to COVID-19-related restrictions, he said restaurants will appreciate the fall uptick in sales from baseball fans.

When he realized the Blue Jays had a chance at a playoff run in the city, Bognar said his first thought was that it would be welcome news for the company’s four restaurants and bars along Front Street: The Loose Moose, Scaddabush, Jack Astor’s and Duke’s Refresher.

“With what we’ve been through for the last almost three years … this is big for us,” he said.

The Blue Jays last made the playoffs in 2020 but pandemic-related restrictions did not allow for any at-home games.

The last time Toronto played a post-season game at the Rogers Centre was 2016, when they won the wild card spot and the division series before losing to Cleveland in the American League Championship Series.

When Canadian teams do well in the Big Leagues, certain industries benefit. For example, revenue from what Statistics Canada calls the spectator sports industry grew by 8.7 per cent to $3.8 billion in 2019, attributing the bulk of that increase to the Raptors’ successful NBA championship run.

Businesses in event promotion and arts and entertainment also saw a boost that year, which saw a record number of tourists visiting Canada.

Bognar said many sports fans come to the bars along Front Street for pre-game and post-game beers, or to watch the game if they weren’t able to snag a ticket. Beers at the Rogers Centre run a pretty penny compared to a pint at a nearby bar, he said.

For that reason, he said, “We see a lot of pre-game participation in beer drinking.”

Over the years, Bognar has also noticed that hockey and baseball fans seem to drink more beer than basketball fans, making this particular playoff run extra welcome for the business.

While his restaurants have been inching back toward pre-pandemic customer traffic, he’s hopeful the Blue Jays will tip them over the edge.

“That’d be the first time we’ve seen that kind of a return in quite a while,” he said.

As a baseball fan too, Bognar is excited for the weekend.

“It’s good for business and to see the energy back,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2022.