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Fans paying a premium to see first-place Blue Jays

TORONTO – Heather Gardiner couldn’t give her seats away.
The Blue Jays owned a record under .500 back in the spring, and looked poised for another middling campaign with little playoff hope.
Things then drastically turned around on the field. Toronto now sits first in the American League East.
And tickets are a hot commodity — often at a hefty price.
Getting into Rogers Centre to see Canada’s only Major League Baseball team has quickly morphed into a costly endeavour this summer that has surprised some fans.
A recent sold-out series against the New York Yankees saw the cheapest seats on resale sites going for more than $200 apiece, while a ticket in the 500 level for Friday’s series-opener with the Kansas City Royals was in the neighbourhood of $80 as of Wednesday afternoon — more than double face value.
Gardiner and her family have two season tickets near the visitors dugout. The tech consultant, who’s had seats since Toronto’s 2015 playoff run, sold most of her extras at cost to friends last season.
After the Jays’ underwhelming start to 2025, interest dropped to near zero.
“We were posting on social media three days before a game saying, ‘We can’t make it and if you want the tickets let me know and they’re yours,’” Gardiner said. “They were free and people weren’t taking them.”
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Toronto’s surge up the standings signalled a drastic shift across the ticket market.

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Fans can make purchases directly from the team through Ticketmaster, while the website also has verified resale options — usually at an inflated price — similar to other big-hitters like SeatGeek and StubHub when supply is scarce.
Jagger Long, who runs Toronto-based resale website Karma Tickets, said a number of factors, including summer holidays, tourism and a winning team are contributing to the spikes.
“We’re riding the hype of the Jays,” he said. “People are spending the money. If they weren’t, the prices would come down.”
A multi-million dollar renovation of Rogers Centre that improved sightlines, added more bars, communal areas and other amenities has also raised the stakes, Long said.
“They’ve done a great job of turning it into more of a social event,” he said.
That mainly happens in the common areas where general admission tickets — standing room, without a seat — can be purchased for a face value of roughly $20.
But those tickets — along with blocks of seats in the 500s — are often snapped up by scalpers or fellow fans looking to make a quick buck, Long said. General admission seats for Toronto’s opener against Kansas City were priced around $50 and up for resale Wednesday.
“People are watching the market,” said Long, who added website algorithms can boost prices automatically when tickets are at a premium. “Even average fans, professional ticket sellers, part-time ticket sellers, they watch. They treat it like a part-time job or a full-time job.”
The Jays said in a statement the club encourages fans to plan ahead and purchase tickets well in advance of games. The team noted there are plenty of seats available for series later in August and September.
Long agreed getting tickets early is the best practice, but added scanning resale options for popular games can still garner good results.
“Jot down the price and then go back in a few days,” he said. “If the prices haven’t really moved, that’s an indicator … you eventually might find a hidden gem.”
The face value of Gardiner’s tickets sit at just over $100 each per game. She hasn’t looked to make a profit in the past, but sold for as much as $350 apiece for the Yankees series, and got $450 this weekend.
Prices for season-ticket holders jumped significantly following the Rogers Centre renovations. Gardiner said she knows a number of fellow fans — including some with tickets since Day 1 back in 1977 at Exhibition Stadium — who have gone that route to maintain their small pieces of baseball real estate.
The financial calculus of attending Jays games aside, Gardiner said the energy at the ballpark is comparable to when she first bought in a decade ago.
“It’s like being there in 2015,” she said. “There was something different, and that’s what it’s feeling like in that building.
“Everyone keeps saying it’s like a playoff game. It is electric.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 30, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
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Supreme Court won’t hear case of Ontario man who fatally shot Indigenous man

The case of an Ontario man found guilty of manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an Indigenous man has come to a close after Canada’s top court declined to hear it.
The Supreme Court of Canada has rejected a leave to appeal request from Peter Khill, who shot and killed Jonathan Styres after finding the man breaking into his truck in the early morning hours of Feb. 4, 2016.

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As is its standard practice, the high court did not give reasons for its decision to not hear the case.
Khill was charged with second-degree murder and pleaded not guilty, testifying that he acted in self-defence and in accordance with his military training.
In 2022, a jury found him not guilty of second-degree murder but guilty of the lesser offence of manslaughter. He was sentenced to eight years behind bars.
Earlier this year, the Court of Appeal for Ontario dismissed his appeal regarding his conviction but reduced his sentence to six years.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
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Ontario city facing full $18.3M cyberattack bill after insurer denies claim

Hamilton taxpayers are looking at fronting the full cost of a devastating 2024 cyberattack after the city’s insurance company denied its claim.
Councillors were told at the general issues committee meeting on Wednesday that the city’s claim was denied because multi-factor authentication had not been fully implemented at the time of the attack.
According to the city’s insurance policy, no coverage was available for any losses where the absence of multi-factor authentication was the root cause of the cyber breach.
“I understand why Hamiltonians are frustrated — this was a serious and costly breach,” Mayor Andrea Horwath said in a news release Wednesday.
“We expect our public systems to be strong, secure, and dependable. This incident highlights that the city fell short of that standard — and we’re not okay with that.”
Attackers demanded $18.5M in ransom
On Feb. 25, 2024, Hamilton experienced a cyberattack that disabled roughly 80 per cent of its network and impacted services like business licence processing, property tax, transit planning and finance and procurement systems for weeks.
A few systems were unrecoverable, the city said, including permit applications and licensing, fire department records management and traffic signal system management.

The attackers launched a complex ransomware attack through an external internet-facing server, the city said. After covertly studying the city’s systems, they encrypted systems and data to render them unusable and attempted — but failed — to destroy all the city’s backups.
The attackers demanded a ransom of roughly $18.5 million in exchange for a decryption tool to unscramble the city’s data. The city did not pay the ransom, adding it contained the incident within two days and managed to provide critical services throughout.

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“Paying the ransom would have increased the City’s risk and financial exposure,” the city said in the news release, saying technical advisers added decryption tools from cybercriminals are very often unreliable.
“Even with a working tool, safe restoration would have taken significant time and money. Additionally, paying ransom funds could fuel future cybercrime and support international organized crime and terrorist organizations.”
City has spent $18.3M in upgrades so far
Mike Zegarac, general manager of finance and corporate services, told councillors on Wednesday the city would have to incur costs regardless of whether it had paid the ransom.
To date, the city has spent $18.3 million on immediate response, system recovery and third-party expert support. There may be additional invoices still to be received for some items that will be included in future reports, staff noted.
Of the $18.3 million, $14 million has been spent on external experts who have helped the city’s response, redesign and future strategies, staff added.

At the general issues committee meeting Wednesday, Ward 2 Coun. Cameron Kroetsch took issue with the “looseness” of Hamilton’s cyber strategy.
“There weren’t protocols in place for many parts of the city, including how we connected to devices … and there was virtually no training provided whatsoever to councillors with respect to what to do here,” he said.
“This didn’t happen due to councillors’ negligence of any kind, or councils for that matter. But there have been several reports I’ve monitored outside of being an elected official where I saw recommendations being made to address this, and the investments not being made to pick up with those for whatever reason … we knew we had these problems with place … this has to be taken more seriously.”
Ward 9 Coun. Brad Clark said he found it “very frustrating” that multi-factor authentication wasn’t put in place years ago after learning from a staff member at the meeting that Hamilton’s insurance company sought it in late 2022.
When its claim was denied, the city obtained a third-party review of the decision and did not pursue further legal action as it learned the insurer’s action was based on coverage terms.
“The city had full knowledge we were not compliant with the exclusion in 2023,” he said.
“How does council find out it wasn’t done if staff doesn’t share it with us? I find it immensely frustrating there has been zero accountability on this; this chamber, we’ll be held accountable in a year and a bit; front bench and all the staff, no accountability for this incident. I can’t explain that to my residents.”
The city has since said it has enhanced its cyber controls and renewed its insurance coverage.
In her statement, Horwath said Hamilton will learn from the incident.
“We acted swiftly, and we’re moving forward with focus and determination. This is also a clear and indisputable reminder that timely investments in public infrastructure help prevent far more costly reactive responses down the line,” she said.
“The City of Hamilton is rebuilding with resilience and future-proofing in mind, while strengthening our systems, improving protections, and ensuring better service and safeguards for our entire community.”
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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Teen accused in Quadeville attack on girl to make next court appearance in August

A teenager accused in the attack on an eight-year-old girl in Quadeville, Ont., that investigators initially linked to an animal is set to return to court next month.
The 17-year-old suspect made a brief appearance Thursday at the courthouse in Pembroke, Ont., where he stood in shackles as his case was put over until Aug. 21.

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The teen, whose identity is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, faces charges of attempted murder and sexual assault with a weapon.
He was arrested last Tuesday, after investigators discovered there was no trace of animal DNA from the girl’s wounds, and remains in custody.
Police initially believed the girl was attacked by an animal, after the child was found with life-threatening injuries on June 24 in the small community in eastern Ontario.
Quadeville residents pressed OPP officers at a town hall last weekend about why investigators initially suspected an animal attack and told people to keep their small children indoors.
Police have said that they never ruled out other possibilities, and that their initial theory was supported by medical and pathology experts.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
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