Done Deal: Phillies get three more home games
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Done Deal: Phillies get three more home games
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
UPDATED 12:10 PM MST: Interesting dispatch from esteemed Toronto columnist Jeff Blair, who has a couple of interesting points. One, Jays CEO Paul Beeston says the club will probably emerge "revenue neutral" from the gate split with the Phillies. Sounds like the Phils have the potential to make at least a little extra scratch from their home series. Although, again, we have yet to receive any word at all from the Phillies even acknowledging a series change. Maybe they'll make some loot out of this to put toward their Rainy Day -- AKA Jayson Werth -- fund.
More interesting, Blair says the Jays have asked MLB to include a series between the Phillies and Jays in Toronto next season so that the Jays can "properly honour Roy Halladay."
And by "properly," we can only assume Beeston means spelling the word in the Queen's English.
UPDATED: 11:59 AM MST: The Phillies have sent out an email to season ticket holders that reads as follows:
Phillies season ticket holders will be notified of their options within the next 3-7 days. Individual Tickets will be on sale in approximately 10-14 days. Please continue to check phillies.com for the most up-to-date information.
Updated: 11:32 AM MST. . .
The series switch has been announced by Major League Baseball, although plenty of details remain unanswered. We have yet to receive anything concrete from the Phillies pertaining to some of these questions:
What happens to the tickets Phillies fans purchased from the Blue Jays while planning what seemed to be an ideal summer weekend getaway? Will they have first dibs at tickets at CBP?
How will the gate receipts be split? This was obviously a huge attendance weekend for the Blue Jays, given the return of Roy Halladay and an interleague series against a Phillies team whose fans are known to travel in droves. But the Phillies also need to pay for operating costs. . .
Will this cause much of an uproar among NL East competitors, with the three-time defending champs getting an extra home series? Even though the Phillies will technically be the visiting team, they will presumably be using their own clubhouse, and be playing in front of their home fans.
Keep in mind this will also be the first time in its history that Citizens Bank Park sees the use of the designated hitter.
The nuts and bolts:
The Phillies and Jays will play three games at Citizens Bank Park from June 25-27. Friday's game is set for 7:35 p.m. Sunday's game is set for 1:35 p.m. Saturday's game time remain unannounced.
The Phillies will be considered the visiting team. The Blue Jays will bat last, and the games will count as road games for the Phillies in the standings.
More to come. . .
^
In reality, Major League Baseball had little choice. Some of the most powerful leaders in the world were going to be in Toronto the same weekend the Blue Jays were scheduled to host the Phillies, and the resulting secuirty complications were impossible to navigate.
Later today, the league will announce that the series between the Blue Jays and the Phillies from June 25-27 has been moved out of Toronto, according to several people with knowledge of the situation, with it's likely destination now Citizens Bank Park.
The series, provided it lands at Citizens Bank Park as expected, will make for an interesting set of circumstances. First, the Phillies will technically be the visiting team in their own ballpark. They will play this interleague series using American League rules, with a designated hitter and Toronto batting in the home half of the inning.
The move also spoils the homecoming of Phillies ace Roy Halladay, who was traded from the Blue Jays in December for a package of prospects.
Officials from Major League Baseball and the Phillies declined to comment.
UncleEddie - I hear what you're saying... it's just that if the tables were turned, and the Mets wound up with three extra "home" games, a lot of people here would be pretty unhappy about it (unless it was last year when the Mets were ~20 games behind the Phils).— chaos91- halladay wasnt guaranteed to pitch one of the 3 in toronto anyway...is olympic stadium still standing? that thing was fallig apart when the expos were still playing there...would be pretty funny for phils fans to pretend to be cheering for the jays, to have the organist and scoreboard be pro-blue jays..everyone show up wearing blue...for the day, they should switch to serving molson or labatts and everyone could say "lets score some runs, eh".— jim715
- Sign Werth— robinlupe
- Great having three more "home" games at CBP. However, I'm not thrilled about the stench of the DH descending upon the hallowed turf of Citizen's Bank Park. If Toronto thought it was a good idea to play home games at the park of their opponent, maybe the Phillies can convince them to go without the DH too :).— pocobull
- This should be interesting. I definitely have to get to one of these games.— Phillies2008WSChamps
They should play 2 games down here at the end of June and leave a game to be played later in Toronto so that the Toronto fans can pay their respects to Halladay. An advanced rain out of you will. Re-schedule the game in Toronto when both teams have have an off day. Its an hour plane ride to Toronto, no problem.— argonne
TuffCustomer: "play it in Montreal"-what a GREAT IDEA! A perfect compromise location. I'm sure Montrealers, having missed the Expos for six years and finally starved for "baseball" (as it's spelled in French, just like English), would nearly fill Stade Olympic. And I would be able to go, 2 hours away!!!- Cant believe this. Was planning the road trip to Canada for the Halladay return. It's total BS that season ticket holders get first dibs. It's an "away" game.— djack10
anyone going to the game needs to help shock the haters and cheer for both teams. It's a rare opportunity to make news for the right reasons.— Pelti- Heard the Phillies will be wearing the powder blue uni's as the road team. This and Roy Halladay are revenge for Joe Carter!— javydelphia
We're worse on the road and interleague already unbalances the competition (for instance the Nats get to play Baltimore) so there's nothing to complain about. Will the Phanatic be allowed to come out?— burholme- Use that extra cash from the weekend to SIGN JASON WERTH!— ksam
@davidlipkin10, agreed, but I was thinking yesterday, I think Halladay goes up $11M next year. Phils are paying him $9 this year and I think he goes to $20 next year- @davidlipkin10, agreed, but I was thinking yesterday, I think Halladay goes up $11M next year. Phils are paying him $9 this year and I think he goes to $20 next year
- david, remember the raises due to howard and halladay next year, and rollins a fa after next year..note that the phils dont get all of the concession and parking revenue... though at the game the other day i was contemplating how many beers they must sell at $7.50 a pop, and how much of that goes to the phils, and how much goes to aramark..no wonder they tolerate so much drunken behavior down there— jim715
- I know a lot of people have been dismissing the Phillies signing Werth next year, but I think they really could do it if Jayson is willing to back-load the contract. I took a few minutes to do some calculations and granted they are somewhat optimistic, but if the Phillies continue to sellout every game and wind up with 3,564,000 attendance for the season. Here's what my back of the scorecard says. Figure and average ticket price for the Bank of $ 35. That computes to $ 1,540,000 per game or a season total of $ 124,740,000. Still below the payroll, but add in the concession sales at an average of $ 20 per person and you get an additional $ 71,280,000 and then figure parking at 25,000 cars a game times $ 12 a car and you get another $ 19,440,000. That totals to approximately $ 214,000,000. Then you need to figure in TV/Radio Fees and Additional advertising. The likelihood is a gross income of $235,000,000 or more. That's not the Yankees, but I think they could have a payroll of $ 150-155,000,000 with those numbers and that's without a ticket price increase or increase in TV/Radio rights fees (the trick Bill Giles used to bring Pete Rose in '79) Remember that we will lose Jamie Moyer's $ 8-9,000,000 next year and Ibanez's 10,-11,000.000 the year after. If Werth would sign for $12,000,000 in year one $ 15,000,000 in year two it might be doable. Remember, all of these salaries are very large and at some point it means more to these very competitive guys to win than get the very last dollar. The chance to keep this going should be very appealing to both sides. Anyway, these are just a few optimistic thoughts I would like to share. Keep in mind my numbers are all estimations as I possess no inside knowledge.— davidlipkin10
- ruben is a genius..this is a secret clause in the halladay trade...phils only give the jays the gate$ for their normal crowd of 12k, and we get to keep the rest of the money from the other 33k...its a fund raiser for the phils to be able to afford to pay Halladay and keep werth..is it coincidence that its the G20 and the phils have to pay Halladay 20 million next year? i think not... how many phils fans had already booked trips to toronto?— jim715
- I bought tickets to two of the Toronto games back in March(they are not cheaper than CBP) and rented a condo for the weekend. I am seriously bummed out.— citizenworried
- The G-20 is planned well in advance. Someone at MLB screwed the Jays royally when they scheduled these games in Toronto— davesju93
- The Phils should wear the old POWDER BLUE / MAROON away jerseys that they will wear for one of their away games at the Brewers this season. What a great chance to wear those cool uniforms at home.— fcskills
- "All ticket holders will receive a full refund on their tickets from the Jays, as well as one free ticket voucher for each ticket refunded for any upcoming home game this season." So Jays fans get a free game.— P Even
- that would be interesting if they did switch dugouts and locker rooms!— uncle meat
- Let Cliff Lee go, he won't be pitching for the Phils then anyway. Some people have so much trouble dealing with reality . . .— tj22phils
- Oh nevermind. In one paragraph, you said, "The Phillies will be considered the visiting team. They will bat last, and the games will count as road games in the standings." but then in the last update you said they will hit as the visitors.— nosmoke
- They don't care about being fair, they care about ticket sales. Rmember when the Saints had to play a home game in giants stadium? That game should have been played in the linc, cowboy stadium or fed ex field if you wanted to give the saints a home field advantage away from home. The games would prob have sold at least 60% capacity but noo gotta get the money.— Mike977
Comment removed.- If the Phils are considered the visiting team, why will they bat last?— nosmoke
- I am a lifelong Philly native (hence a life long Phils phan) livng in upstate NY. I used to love when the Expos were in Montreal (2 hrs away); got great seats to the game. Man, I am ALL for bringing the Phightins to Montreal!— Clem
- They should play it in Buffalo. It is only 2 1/2 hrs from Toronto.
- The Giants got a "home game" against the Saints after Katrina. I didn't like that for the Eagles sake, but that's the way it goes. So, too bad for the NL East.— FireTMac&Wheeler!
- CLIFF LEE says he thinks he will be invited to attend the meeting in Toronto...— stan the man too
The Blue Jays should get the gate money, and they should be lucky to have it. They should also be charging Blue Jays ticket prices, which are cheaper than Phillies ticket prices, to get into CBP for that series.- Here's your Werth $$$$— mooney
- chaos91 -- really? Who cares what the Mets, Nats, Braves or Marlins think??— UncleEddie
- Just what the Phightin's need: another bat in the lineup at their home ballpark for a game. :-)— davesju93
- SO how are tickets going to work? CBP and the Rogers Centre are not carbon copies, you can't just use all the tickets sold for the game up there. Are they going to forbid Phillies fans from cheering? If a fan runs onto the field, will Toronto PD tase him?— ak3883
- Halladay can't be happy about this. No homecoming for Doc— Serge_Matthews
- Why not a neutral site? As much as I'd love 2 extra games at home, it's not really fair, and could raise issues if the race is tight in September. Like Tuff said, Montreal maybe. Or given toronto's attendance, maybe a bigger Minor league park like Rochester or Buffalo, who are both on the road. Other MLB teams that are on the road are Cleveland, Detroit, and Minnesota. Heck, play in Yankee Stadium.— Pelti
- If I were the Mets, Nats, Braves, or Marlins, I wouldn't be too happy that the team they were chasing for the division title suddenly got three extra "home" games.— chaos91
- That will be neat to see the Phils in their away greys in CBP!— lefty1117
- Comment removed.
- Would Toronto get the gate money at CBP? Owner is prob drooling over that, they don't exactly pack them in up there. Not fair to the Js though, but not sure there is a way around it.— Mike977
- How do we get tickets.....so I can go on to Torontos team site and buy tickets and get into Citizens Bank park?— crkreg
- Hey Murph, any news on Rollins? Is there a return date yet?— n62
