On the 21st anniversary of the last day they were in the post-season, the Toronto Blue Jays — owners of the longest playoff drought in North American professional sports — increased ticket prices almost across the board for the upcoming season.

The hardest hit seats are in the 500-level, where prices for a 15-game flex pack are up 50 per cent compared to last year. Elsewhere, increases range from five or 10 per cent to 35 or 40 per cent.

In most cases it works out to just a few extra bucks per game — in 200-level outfield seats prices actually shrank slightly — but given the team’s disappointing on-field performance in recent seasons, fans were upset by the news.

“If they were a first-place team you could justify it a little more,” said Dan Young, a lifelong fan who became a season-ticket holder two years ago. His tickets went up by 25 per cent.

“It’s 21 years since Joe Carter,” he said, trailing off.

The Jays had a winning record last season for the first time since 2010, but they missed the playoffs for the 21st consecutive season. With the Kansas City Royals ending their 29-year drought this year, the Jays now wear the dubious crown of longest post-season absence.

“I’m pretty surprised they had the audacity to raise the ticket prices this much,” said Mike Wilkomirsky, who has purchased a 500-level flex pack the last five seasons but isn’t sure he’ll abide the 50 per cent price hike. “They have the longest streak of playoff futility in the league, and after Game 2 of the World Series they hit us up with a price increase? It’s par for the course for what people expect from Rogers,” he said referring to the telecommunications company that owns the team.

Blue Jays senior vice-president Stephen Brooks said the organization is “sensitive” to fan frustration, but they hadn’t raised ticket prices since 2010.

“It’s never an easy decision, as evidenced by the fact we haven’t done it in five years.”

Brooks said the changes in prices are aimed at correcting disparities in scale between different multi-game packages and price levels. “It’s just trying to get consistency in product pricing relative to other products by section.”

Single-game tickets don’t go on sale until January, but Brooks said those prices will go up as well.

In 2014, Jays’ ticket prices were below league average. But their fan cost index — a measure that looks at the total expense for a family of four to attend a game — was $5 higher than the MLB average (mostly due to higher parking costs).

Toronto ranked 17 out of 30 teams in total attendance last season with a mark of 2,375,525, which declined by six per cent from 2013.

Fans also expressed frustration with the fact that while the team’s payroll increased substantially two seasons ago it has been rigidly fixed since then, citing the Ervin Santana debacle — when general manager Alex Anthopoulos asked five of the team’s highest-paid players to defer portions of their salary in order to free up payroll to sign the free-agent right-hander — and the club’s inability to make any significant additions before the trade deadline despite injuries to three core players.

“To ask us to invest more when we haven’t seen it from ownership or from the general manager, it’s frustrating,” said Young. “I would like to hear what they plan to do with the price increase, if we’re going to see it on the field or not.”

“(The increase) caught me by surprise for sure,” said Vishala Shembedasie, whose 20-game 500-level ticket package went from $200 to $260 this season. “Sixty bucks might not seem like much, but when you’re on a tight budget you have to think twice about what you spend on leisure.”

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Shembedasie also pointed to the fact the increase comes at a time of uncertainty for the team, with questions about who will start in centre field and second base and whether or not the Jays will re-sign Melky Cabrera.

“We don’t even know what we’re buying into at this point.”

Fans were also disappointed they were not given a heads-up about the increase. The prices changed without notice. Some regular subscribers learned of the new prices when they received their invoices. But Brooks said they have never made any announcement about season-ticket or flex-pack prices.

“I think they should have been a little more transparent with fans,” Wilkomirsky said. “It’s the principle.”