If you want to piss off Mark Shapiro, president of the Toronto Blue Jays, tell him that Queen City training is run like a business by Rogers.
It might piss him off a bit.
According to what the president said during an interview with the Toronto Sun, the Jays have lost money in recent years. For what?
First, it was planned due to the rebuilding of the club. In 2018 and 2019, the product on the pitch was not very good.
But despite everything, the Jays renovated their facilities in Florida (stadium and training complex) before tackling the renovations of the Rogers Center.
Then the pandemic. In 2020 and the first half of 2021, the club went into exile in the United States.
You will say that in 2020 no one had fans, but moving everyone to Buffalo didn’t help. And in 2021, the club had three homes and had no revenue in Toronto for many months.
But despite everything, the club never wavered and gave the management the means to fulfill its ambitions. This makes the president happy, who says the club has lost “a lot of money” in the last four or five years.
In his eyes, if Rogers had decided to run the Jays like a business, there would have been pay cuts and big names would not have signed.
This is why he emphasizes the financial commitment of his boss.
The direct questions I have from my boss (Edward Rogers) are about the team and if we’re going to win games. He does not tell me about profits and losses.
He wants to win for this city and this country.
–Mark Shapiro
Will it be easier in the next few years? Theoretically, with the renovations at the Rogers Center and the high payroll (the club is lining up to pay the luxury tax, a first in Toronto), it will not be easy.
It remains to be seen, then.
