The Blue Jays may have lost the World Series, but there was one group in Toronto that were clear winners.
Bars and restaurants holding watch parties during the team’s spectacular playoff run saw bottom lines spike, with some bartenders and servers taking home double — in some cases triple — their regular pay.
“Restaurant transaction volume jumped 27 per cent near Rogers Centre and 10 per cent citywide in Game 1,” says Sean McCormick, VP of data services at payment platform Moneris. “Clearly … the championship stage inspires fans to savour the experience and spend a little more while doing it.”
The numbers were even more impressive for the Jays Game 7 ALCS win showing a 29 per cent increase in volume and a 17 per cent growth in transaction sizes.
Even bars far from the Rogers Centre felt the financial love.
Phil Cacace, co-owner of Tallboys on Bloor West, says their bar was at full capacity for the first two and last two games of the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, cramming 100 fans into the bar’s three-room layout — including the patio that was open despite the chilly weather.
“Never have we witnessed this level of excitement and commitment from customers,” says Cacace.
While he wasn’t able to give a hard number on the revenue boost for his bar, Moneris data from the first game of the Series showed a 10 per cent hike in transactions for bars further from the action, including a five per cent spike in the size of transactions.
At The Rhino on Queen West, owner and manager Louise Muskala, says that even after squeezing extra seating inside using patio furniture, the bar still had to turn people away.
“We wanted to accommodate as many people as possible,” says Muskala, who even tried to honour reservations from superstitious patrons who requested to watch the game from their “lucky” seats. The demand, she says, simply exceeded their capacity.
Muskala says it felt like the Jays’ playoff success surpassed even that of the Raptors NBA Championship run in 2019 — something she attributes to the trade tensions between Canada and the U.S.
“Because of what’s happening with the politics, I think people are rallying around this Canadian team,” says Muskala. “People were singing O Canada.”
October is usually one of The Rhino’s slowest months of the year, but Muskala says this was one of its best.
Chanelle Moonie, a manager at Rex’s on Bay Street, says foot traffic was unusual for this time of year when the weather cools and people tend to stay at home.
Moonie says that she and the other bartenders made double or even triple what they normally make in a night in the first game of the series against the Dodgers thanks to a mix of locals and tourists from the U.S. trying to soak up World Series excitement.
Yet not every Toronto bar and restaurant was able to capitalize on the Jays’ success.
Muskala says colleagues in the industry without TVs not only missed out on the Blue Jays bump, but reported a decrease in foot traffic.
But sold-out watering holes should now brace for a post-baseball hangover.
Frédéric Dimanche, a professor of hospitality and tourism at Toronto Metropolitan University, says the spike in business won’t be permanent.
“Local fans who spent a lot of money on the games are now likely to reduce spending ahead of the Christmas holidays,” says Dimanche, who added that fans outside Toronto won’t continue to spend in the city.
Beleaguered servers might actually welcome a recovery period.
Cacace says that after 18 innings in Game 3, he didn’t close until 3:30 a.m. After Game 7, he and staff left at 4 a.m., which felt like 5 a.m. due to daylight savings last weekend.
But, it’s all in a day’s work for championship restaurant workers.
“You don’t see us eat, you don’t see us drink, you don’t see us tired, and you rarely see us sad,” says Cacace of his staff. “We are superhuman.”
