Dynamic Pricing is Now in Effect for Blue Jays Single Game Tickets

If you’ve ventured over to the Blue Jays website this past week to purchase some tickets, you may have noticed something a little different. The rumoured-to-be dynamic ticket pricing is now officially in place for 2016 single game tickets and group tickets.

So what exactly does it mean for Blue Jays fans? Basically, it’s going to cost you even more to go to particular Blue Jays games, dependent on a number of factors, which are explained via the Blue Jays Dynamic Pricing FAQ page:

Our team analyzes multiple data points that may include day of week, opponent, team record, supply and demand of tickets purchased by fans, and many other factors. Timing for price adjustments is not pre-determined and will depend on market conditions.

Depending on the demand, opponent, day of the week and any promotional giveaways, you can likely expect to pay more for that coveted Blue Jays ticket.


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Rather than explain the algorithm, it’s probably just easier to test drive the new ticket system for yourself or check out the difference in prices during one particular cross-section of the schedule. This gives you an idea of the range of prices you can expect to pay in early July.

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No big surprise here, but the marquee games against big name opponents will cost more, and the weird mid-week Interleague games against the likes of the Diamondbacks and Padres will be much, much less.

For example, a Field Level Bases ticket on Thursday July 7th will cost you $49 dollars. Two days later on Saturday July 9th, that very same ticket will now cost you $65.50, which works out to be an increase of 34%.

Just scanning through the schedule, those Field Level Bases tickets peak at a price of $72.50 on Sunday July 10th; the Joe Carter/Roberto Alomar replica jersey giveaway day.

Something of note; the dynamic pricing system only affects single game tickets and group tickets. Season ticket holders and Flex Pack holders prices are frozen and not subject to increase or decrease throughout the season.

I’ll admit, this system is going to take some getting used to. Paying a flat amount for a ticket in a particular section has been the norm for umpteen years, and most teams now use the dynamic pricing system.

The other strange side effect from the introduction of dynamic pricing? Since every game is priced differently, there’s no pricing map whatsoever. The only way to find the price for your seat is to select the game you want and go from there.

Here’s where fans could notice a big difference; if the Blue Jays once again enjoy a second half surge and secure another playoff berth, that means single game ticket prices could potentially surge even higher than before.


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Since it’s all about supply and demand, if the Jays are in the playoff hunt, expect all ticket prices to be escalated. On the flip side, if the team is tanking come summertime, Blue Jays tickets will invariably decrease in price.

So how do you avoid a sudden surge in ticket prices? The Blue Jays recommend you buy your tickets now as to lock in the price and achieve “significant savings”. The introduction of dynamic pricing suddenly incentivizes Season tickets and Flex Packs even more, as single game ticket prices have the potential to fluctuate all season long.

I get why the Blue Jays chose to roll out this program and it makes perfect sense from a business perspective, but to the fans just looking to catch the odd Jays game, it could potentially cost you a whole lot more for your tickets.

Hat tip to /r/TorontoBlueJays for the heads up on the new Dynamic Pricing system. Image via National Post/24 News

Ian Hunter

Ian has been writing about the Toronto Blue Jays since 2007. He enjoyed the tail-end of the Roy Halladay era and vividly remembers the Alex Rodriguez "mine" incident. He'll also retell the story of Game 5 of the 2015 ALDS to his kids for the next 20 years.

6 thoughts on “Dynamic Pricing is Now in Effect for Blue Jays Single Game Tickets

  • February 20, 2016 at 1:08 pm
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    I guess its better that the team get the money rather than stubhub though. I’d estimate the team left at least 20mm on the table as the difference between secondary market pricing and static ticket pricing.

  • February 20, 2016 at 3:14 pm
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    “Paying a flat amount for a ticket in a particular section has been the norm for umpteen years.” That’s not really true. Weekend (& holiday) and weekday games have been priced differently for quite some time – and before that they had three different levels of pricing. The only difference now is that every game is priced differently. Cheers.

  • February 21, 2016 at 3:12 pm
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    So now tickets prices are like hitting a moving target or gambling. If you want to go to a certain game but are unsure of whether or not you can go (work schedules, babysitting etc), you have to gamble that the prices will not increase before you are ready to buy the ticket. This may work for some people but for people like I just mentioned, it can really suck.

    For me it won’t matter, I am going to four group games this year and my tickets are purchased and I did not pay for them!

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  • February 22, 2016 at 7:59 pm
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    This is horrible. The team was distinctly average for years and then after one good year they start upping prices for games against the bigger names, our rivals and on the more popular days – often the only days some can go. Talk about taking advantage of fans, especially those fans who did stick by them through the lean years. Of course, our loyalty is too strong to tell them to stuff it, and so I’ll likely be taken advantage of, but it’s pretty sad and just another case of a sports owner mistakingly linking our emotional investment in the club to the financial gains they can bleed out of it.

    Interestingly, in another sport, Liverpool Football Club tried to do something similar, along with ticket price increases, but the fans riled against it in protest and the club backed down. I don’t suspect we’ll see much of that here.

    On a side note, I wish they would consider a loyalty points scheme for those who cannot commit to a season ticket or flex packs so that when the playoffs come around again those fans have a better shot at getting the tickets as opposed to seeing them all wind up on secondary re-sale markets.

  • March 9, 2016 at 1:17 pm
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    It will be interesting to watch the prices through out the season. I copied the ticket prices on March 3rd @ 10:30 AM and again today on March 9th @ 12:30 PM and noticed the all prices had gone up. Some by a small amount but they have gone up. Here is a sample of the first 2 series. The prices in green are the prices from today and in the blue is the difference from March 3rd.

    http://imgur.com/NUukhfB

    More dates with large price increases in tickets:
    https://i.imgur.com/EgNpcYG.png
    https://i.imgur.com/M477S6q.png
    https://i.imgur.com/5QYaoFE.png

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