Tickets for Blue Jays-Yankees Games Restricted to Local Residents
Photo Credit: Kevin Sousa/Imagn Images via Sports Illustrated
On Oct. 8, the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the New York Yankees to advance to the American League Championship Series. But in late September, before the quarterfinal series even started, the Yankees’ admissions director, Aaron Boone, decided to restrict home-game tickets to only allow residents of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. Anyone living outside of those states who wanted to buy tickets to the Yankees playoff games was immediately refunded, leaving Canadian Blue Jays fans confused and offended.
If a Canadian tried to enter their billing address into the Ticketmaster website to purchase tickets to the playoff game at Yankee Stadium, they were met with an error message. A Yankees representative informed the CBC that the policy was meant to prevent ticket scalping, which is when resellers buy tickets to sell them at a higher price.
On the other hand, throughout the regular season and playoffs, the Blue Jays have also been restricting ticket purchases for Rogers Centre, their home stadium in Toronto, to only buyers with Canadian billing addresses. According to CTV News, the policy is implemented to “keep tickets in the hands of Blue Jays fans across the country.”
According to Boston.com, a Yankees spokesperson pointed out that this ticket restriction policy has been in action for all playoff games since 2018 and is not a new rule. This extended policy has also prevented fans of the Boston Red Sox, the Yankees' fierce competiton, from attending the playoff games if they live outside of the accepted zip codes.
As a result, Red Sox fans in Boston were unable to buy tickets to see the Yankees and Red Sox compete in the best-of-three Wild Card series at the Yankee’s Stadium on Oct. 1. However, unlike the Yankees or Blue Jays, Boston does not have a similar ticket restriction.
“We do not limit purchase eligibility at Fenway Park [the home stadium of the Boston Red Sox],” a Boston Red Sox representative told the CBC.
Furthermore, Brian McGonagle, a Boston-based producer of the Spittin' Chiclets hockey podcast, wrote in a post on X that the Yankees ticket administration team is a “bunch of scare bears.”
Other individuals in the sports industry echoed similar sentiments. “Yankees blocking Red Sox fans from buying tickets,” said longtime Yankees sports radio host Mike Francesa on X. “This is what second-rate franchises do. The once-proud Bombers have become a sad joke!”
The Yankees and Blue Jays aren’t the first teams to have capped ticket policies. Many sports leagues have had similar ticket restrictions so that local fans have a better chance to attend home games. These teams include the Seattle Seahawks, who limited San Francisco 49ers fans in 2014; the Denver Broncos, who limited the New England Patriots fans in 2014; and the Florida Panthers, who limited the Toronto Maple Leafs fans in 2023. Nevertheless, in all of these cases, the team whose fans were barred from attending the game never responded by reciprocating the policy.