TORONTO – Over two decades of pent-up demand for playoff baseball in Toronto was unleashed on the Internet and phone lines today as Blue Jays fans snapped up post-season tickets.
Wild-card and American League Division Series single-game tickets went on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Eastern time this morning.
By 11:40 a.m., the Jays tweeted that the ALDS tickets were sold out, and only limited options for a potential wild-card game remained.
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Tickets were only available for purchase online and by phone.
Some unlucky fans thought the tickets were on sale at the Rogers Centre box office, but they found that wasn’t the case out the hard way.
Robert Kyba was among a handful of Jays fans who sat outside the Rogers Centre box office before sunrise Thursday morning, hoping to get a ticket.
“I thought I would get some tickets,” he said. “I was at the World Series in 93.”
Those fans were told in person that they’d have to get their tickets over the phone or online.
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Jays playoff tickets have already appeared on secondary-market sites, and at a premium price. Single tickets on the 500 level, originally priced at $50, were selling for around $200.
Some tickets were selling for upwards of $10,000 on popular ticket website StubHub as of Thursday afternoon.
Playoff baseball in Toronto for the first time since the Jays won the World Series in 1993 is almost a guarantee. The Blue Jays have a three-and-a-half game lead over New York atop the American League East entering tonight’s action with just over a week left in the season.
Even if Toronto imploded and lost the division race with the Yankees, the Blue Jays would be a virtual lock to host the American League wild-card game. Toronto is six-and-a-half games up on Houston, which currently sits in the second wild-card spot.
The Jays said that single-game tickets for the American League final will go on sale Oct. 7, while World Series tickets will be available starting Oct. 22.
Playoff tickets were available previously to season-ticket and flex-pack holders.
With files from Adam Miller
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