The lack of attendance at Toronto Blue Jays games these days is a perfect example of how the lack of parity is hurting the sport. With the Yankees, Red Sox and now Rays blocking the way to the playoffs there is little reason to get excited about the Jays.
Each of the past 2 seasons they have finished 4th in the division. This implies they are not fielding a quality team, however, their record against teams outside their division was 49-41 each year. The .544 winning percentage would have been enough to win the central division in 2009 and was better than Chicago and Minnesota's 2008 winning percentages before they faced off in a 1 game playoff.
With a fraction of the payroll they have managed to remain competitive. The Tampa Bay Rays are well aware of how the Jays feel as their window of competing in the AL East is closing. It took years of finishing last and stockpiling prospects before they could field a competitive team. With many of those young players' contracts coming up the Rays will be forced to shed some of their talent and begin the rebuilding process all over again.
A mere 10,000 fans are making their way to the Rogers Center for games this season. There are some who say it is not a baseball town and all they care about is hockey. This is the same city that became the first to reach 4,000,000 fans in one season in 1991 which would be the first of 3 consecutive years of reaching that plateau.
There is no way someone can say Toronto is not a baseball city. It's just hard for a fan to get excited when they know their team doesn't stand a chance before the season even starts. If baseball cannot survive in North America's fifth biggest market there is a real problem. Sport is obviously exciting because of its competitive nature but with the competition including fewer and fewer teams there is little chance baseball will grow its fan base anytime soon.
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