While most of Major League Baseball has returned to some level of ‘normal’ in the wake of reduced attendance restrictions, it has been more than 600 days since the Toronto Blue Jays have hosted a true home game. That changes later this month, with the team scheduled to play at Rogers Centre on July 30 against the Kansas City Royals.
It took a special exemption from the Canadian government to get the Blue Jays home, similar to one granted the Montreal Canadians to allow them to host games on their home ice for the Stanley Cup Finals. Prior to this point, the team had been playing its home games in Buffalo, New York and Florida due to restrictions on crossing the border from the United States – a problem for a team serving as the lone franchise in Canada until the government allowed the exception.
As many as 15,000 fans will be allowed at Rogers Field for the first Toronto Blue Jays homestand, which features games against Cleveland and Boston after the first three game set against the Royals is complete. Season ticket members are allowed first crack at the tickets to the homestand for now, with remaining tickets going on sale to the general public on Thursday.
No place like home.
7.30.21 #WeAreBlueJays pic.twitter.com/DI90MaHaRO— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) July 16, 2021
Due to the capacity restriction, the Blue Jays will only sell tickets in the 100 and 200 levels of Rogers Centre. According to reports, 2/3 of tickets sold will be for non physically-distant sections, with the other third sold in pod format. Face masks will be required for all in attendance, save for while eating in one’s seats. And ticketing will be mobile-only, with each entry to the stadium requiring a ticket within that individual’s account (so no having an entire groups tickets scanned off of one mobile device).
The series opener on July 30 will be the first since September 29, 2019 to be played at the Blue Jays’ home stadium. Currently 48-42, the team is in third place in the American League East and six games behind the Boston Red Sox. In “home” games thus far, the team is 22-20, compared to Boston and Tampa Bay being nine and eleven games above .500 at home, respectively. According to the team’s schedule, there are 34 games scheduled for Rogers Centre between now and the end of the regular season on October 3, including a six-game homestand against AL East foes New York and Baltimore to close the year.
