Blue Jays or Mariners? Here is who BC baseball fans cheer for
Vancouver has long been a city divided when it comes to Major League Baseball.
Without an MLB franchise to call our own, local baseball fans have a choice in who they cheer for, with two teams rising above the rest.
The Toronto Blue Jays are Canada’s lone MLB franchise and are covered like a local team on national networks. Despite Vancouver being over 3,000 kilometres away from Toronto, the Blue Jays have a huge fan base in British Columbia.
That’s evident every time the Blue Jays visit Seattle.
But not everyone in BC cheers for the Blue Jays, as the hate for Toronto is also strong.
The Seattle Mariners have a passionate fan base in BC, as the Emerald City is located just 192 kilometres south of Vancouver. But the team isn’t well covered locally, with few Mariners games available on television north of the border.
So, how does baseball fandom break down in Vancouver?
An online study conducted by Research Co. from July 29 to August 1 surveyed 800 adults in British Columbia and revealed that way more people cheer for the Blue Jays than the Mariners.
Only 41% of respondents said they had a favourite MLB team, with the vast majority (32%) selecting the Blue Jays. The Mariners were well back, at just 6%. The remaining 3% supported other franchises.
The data was statistically weighted according to Canadian census figures for age, gender, and region, according to the public opinion firm. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points 19 times out of 20.
The survey also asked people their thoughts on Vancouver getting its own MLB team, with 60% of British Columbians saying it is a “very good” or “good” idea. Fans in the Fraser Valley (67%) were most in favour of the idea, followed by Metro Vancouver (60%), Southern BC (57%), Vancouver Island (57%), and Northern BC (53%).
Notice they didn’t ask about paying for a team, or a suitable MLB stadium for that matter.
The New York Yankees are baseball’s most valuable franchise, according to Forbes, valued at $7.1 billion. The Miami Marlins are the least valuable MLB franchise, at a mere $1 billion.
The Blue Jays are ranked 14th, at $2.1 billion, while the Mariners are 13th, at $2.2 billion.
Of the people who said they had a favourite team, 62% said they would stop cheering for the Blue Jays/Mariners/other to support a Vancouver MLB team.
Until then, we can all cheer for the Vancouver Canadians.