BREAKING Pearson gold heist suspect arrested after flying into Toronto from India
Another suspect is in custody in connection with the gold heist at Toronto Pearson International Airport last year, police say.
Fans are returning to the Rogers Centre Friday to see the Toronto Blue Jays play in their first playoff game since 2020 – and there’s a key statistic they’ll be hoping makes a difference against the Seattle Mariners.
According to ESPN, the average attendance at Blue Jays games through the 2022 season rose 50.6 per cent compared to the pre-COVID-19 pandemic season of 2019. In 2022, the average attendance for a game was 32,763, compared to 21,606 in 2019.
This increase is the largest across Major League Baseball teams and it’s a stark contrast to more than a dozen teams that noticed attendance levels drop by between 10 and 24 per cent over the same time period.
The Blue Jays, Canada’s only MLB team, secured a wildcard spot in the upcoming American League playoffs after the Boston Red Sox defeated the Baltimore Orioles 5-3 last week.
According to a Blue Jays spokesperson, postseason ticket sales have been strong for the Jays. Last year, the Rogers Centre was at partial capacity to comply with physical distancing orders, with 15,000 fans per game increasing to 30,000 near the end of the season.
Now, without COVID-19 restrictions, almost 50,000 people can pack into the iconic stadium.
Tyson Shushkewich, co-editor of the Jays Journal fan site, told CTVNews.ca on Wednesday that fans are excited to see their team back in a playoff spot and have picked up steam.
“It's the electric atmosphere of the Rogers Centre,” Shushkewich said. “You saw (fans) kind of pick up towards the end of the season.”
Shushkewich says he has been a fan of the sport since he was 10 years old.
He has seen the Jays fan base go through changes in management and hard-lost years. He compared this year’s team and playoff run to the 2015 season when the Jays broke into the playoffs for the first time since 1993.
“This season, they've seen attendance go back up to about 2.7 million (in total), so about 100,000 less than the 2015 playoff run,” Shushkewich said. “All the fans wanted to do after two years of pandemic baseball was just to have a normal season, especially for Blue Jays fans who in 2021, were so close to the playoffs.”
Last year, the Blue Jays just missed a playoff spot during a season that saw the team playing only in the U.S. for some time due to COVID-19 border restrictions.
“This season, we saw an uptick in fans, because not only could you go to the games, and there weren't any constraints … (but) the Blue Jays had a really good team,” Shushkewich said.
As for what to expect from a full-capacity crowd at the Rogers Centre, Shushkewich described the fans as “emotional” who get “behind” the team.
“When calls don't go their way, they let you know the team's know it on the field,” he said. “It can get pretty intense in there.”
Game 1 of the best-of-three series starts at 4.07 p.m. EDT on Friday; Game 2 is on Saturday at 4.07 p.m. EDT; and, if a tie-breaker is required, Game 3 is slated for Sunday at 2.07 p.m. EDT.
With files from CTVNews.ca's Tara De Boer
Another suspect is in custody in connection with the gold heist at Toronto Pearson International Airport last year, police say.
Hailey and Justin Bieber are going to be parents. The couple announced the news on Thursday on Instagram, both sharing a video that showcases Hailey Bieber's growing belly.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Conservative government led by Pierre Poilievre would not legislate on, nor use the notwithstanding clause, on abortion, his office says, as anti-abortion protesters gather on Parliament Hill.
A southwestern Ontario woman has received an $8,400 bill from a hospital in Windsor, Ont., after she refused to put her mother in a nursing home she hated -- and she says she has no intention of paying it.
Studies have shown that ultraprocessed foods can have a detrimental impact on health. But 30 years of research show they don’t all have the same impact.
Miss Teen USA resigned Wednesday, sending further shock waves through the pageant community just days after Miss USA said she would relinquish her crown.
Ontario Provincial Police confirm one person has died after a single-vehicle rollover crash in Sharbot Lake, Ont. that seriously injured five others.
A grieving mother is speaking out after her 36-year-old son was shot and killed in North Preston, N.S., Wednesday night.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.