There were “noticeably fewer Blue Jays fans in attendance” at T-Mobile Park this weekend for the team’s annual series in Seattle than in prior years, but there were still “plenty of maple-leaf clad faithful” throughout the weekend, according to Shane Lantz of the SEATTLE TIMES. The later innings “sounded much like a Blue Jays home game once the road team took the game into blowout territory.” Attendance at the series “did drop compared to last year, with relations between Canada and the United States currently frosty,” but Sunday’s game “seemed to be the exception.” With 36,823 fans in attendance, it was the “second-highest attendance for a game between the Mariners and Blue Jays in the past two years.” The “bigger drop” occurred between 2023 and 2024, when average attendance in the Blue Jays vs. Mariners series fell from 43,024 to 35,880. In 2025, the series averaged 33,189 fans, including 31,564 on Friday and 31,182 on Saturday (SEATTLE TIMES, 5/11).
CANADIAN PRIDE: THE ATHLETIC’S Mitch Bannon wrote before the series opener, there was “passionate applause” after the Canadian national anthem. During the singing of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” for the seventh-inning stretch, visiting fans “tried to drown out the home team with a chant of ‘Blue Jays!’” Yet, Blue Jays manager John Schneider noted that “it wasn’t quite the same.” During batting practice on Friday, sections of the stadium that were “packed with Blue Jays fans” last season “housed only small patches of blue jerseys.” Bannon indicated that it is “part of a clear trend, as Canadians have found various ways to express their displeasure about the American administration’s new policies.” However, some fans “weren’t bothered by cross-border politics, jumping at the rare chance to see the Blue Jays in person” (THE ATHLETIC, 5/11).
