Laura Tilley used to look forward to the Blue Jays’ home opener. It was an annual tradition for her and her baseball-loving friends — the perfect way to kick off a new season.

But things started to change about a decade ago. The tenor of the night started to feel more aggressive. Tilley, 37, put up with the extra drunkenness and frat-party vibe for a few years, but after a 10-man brawl erupted in her section, she vowed she would never go back.

That was eight or nine years ago. Tilley can’t remember if it was 2006 or 2007 because she can’t remember anything about the game except the bloody fight: “I just remember we were surrounded by families, kids and parents, and there were these, like, 10 dude-bros who were absolutely wasted out of their minds and they started physically fighting.”

Security was nowhere to be found, Tilley says, so she actually had to run into the concourse to bring them to her section. “After that I thought, ‘This isn’t worth it anymore.’”

Tilley isn’t alone. Despite being the most popular game in the Jays’ schedule and selling out in just minutes every year, the home opener has garnered a reputation among many fans for being a drunken gong show — amateur night at the ballpark. “It just kind of evolved into this 50,000-person St. Patrick’s party,” Tilley says. “The alcohol and the drunkenness is the focus over baseball.”

The head of Rogers Centre security, however, says that while that may have once been the case, the reputation is no longer fair or accurate. “I probably would say that was true maybe six or seven years ago, but over our last few years we’ve seen our overall ejections decline,” says Mario Coutinho, the Jays’ vice-president of stadium operations and security.

Recent years have seen roughly 30 people thrown out of the home-opener game, compared to five times as many 10 years ago, Coutinho said. But he refused to disclose ejection numbers or provide evidence of a decline in incidents.

Coutinho conceded that in the mid-to-late 2000s there were a lot of “alcohol-related incidences” during the home opener. The team worked with the Toronto police and the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario to put policies in place to reduce the drunkenness, such as limiting alcohol sales in the 500 level to one drink per person, not selling beer in the seating area in the 500 level and adding extra security. Problems have decreased substantially enough that even those minimal measures may be dropped, Coutinho said: “Quite frankly, this year we probably won’t have that in place. It’s been that good.”

Toronto police, however, have been called to the Rogers Centre on home-opener night more than twice as often in the last three years than they were from 2000 to 2011, according to data the police provided to the Star. Toronto police were called to the Rogers Centre on home-opener night six times in each of the last three years. The previous 12-year average was 2.4 calls. Most of the calls are for minor issues, such as attending to a medical concern or “advising” security. Only twice in the last three years have police made an arrest at the home opener.

Toronto Police spokeswoman Meaghan Gray said police are aware of the issue with “rowdiness and/or public intoxication” at Jays’ home openers, but they don’t consider the event any more troublesome than other sold-out games.

“Historically, that reputation may have been warranted,” Gray said, “but we have seen an improvement over the last few years.”

Kyle Schultz, a 42-year-old high school teacher, said he finds that hard to believe. He was at a home opener just two years ago when a group of young men, who arrived drunk in the second inning, threatened to fight him — he still isn’t sure why — and security had to intervene to throw them out.

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He’s had beer spilled on him from the upper deck, watched teens smoke pot in their seats and seen several fights. Schultz says he likes the atmosphere of the home opener, but any enjoyment is “outweighed by the idiocy.”

His 9-year-old son would like to go to Monday’s opener, but Schultz said he doesn’t feel comfortable bringing him: “It’s not an appropriate game for him at all.”