With the beginning of the first baseball postseason with a Canadian team in more than two decades, the Blue Jays bandwagon is in full effect. But could the boys of summer ever be the favourite team of a country whose identity is so deeply tied to winter?
It’s possible, at least according to a recent survey from Toronto firm Charlton Strategic Research, which tracks consumer sentiment to help marketers make decisions about how to invest in sponsorships.
For a long time, this has meant hockey. “Nobody’s been paying for baseball [research],” Charlton president Gord Hendren said.
But last month, the firm decided to poll its survey takers on sentiment toward the Blue Jays and saw a stunning response: More people said they were “big fans” or “casual fans” of the team than any other in the country, including the hallowed Montreal Canadiens.
Now, the survey needs to be taken with a grain of salt. It’s a small sample size – just 500 people, although it is weighted geographically to reflect the Canadian population. It’s that small because the firm does this research monthly. Over the course of a year, the sample is closer to 2,000.
And the question is whether this fandom is sustainable. Clearly a lot of these avid followers are new or reborn Jays fans. Since the last time Charlton looked at Jays fans, in 2009 (for proprietary research for a client, which it doesn’t share), overall love for the team has roughly doubled.
“Arguably, they have a fan base across the country … when they’re winning, anyway,” Mr. Hendren said.
But if the Jays can keep performing, they may be a promising prospect for new sponsors. Fandom is higher among women and young people than is often assumed for baseball.
“Baseball has traditionally been viewed as being skewed 50-plus [age-wise],” he said. “But millennials that advertisers are excited about, are drawn to the game as well.”