The Toronto Blue Jays organization should want nothing to do with so-called scalper bots. The computer programs, which professional scalpers use to snatch up tickets to sporting events and concerts en masse for resale, often at enormous mark-ups, are so clearly unfair to fans that the provincial government last year cracked down on their use.

But instead of combatting the out-of-control scourge of digital scalpers, and working to ensure fans pay the ticket price the organization advertises, it seems the team’s brass has chosen to get in on the predatory price inflation.

As reported in a joint Star/CBC News investigation, the Blue Jays, unbeknownst to the public, take a cut of every seat sold on the online ticket resale giant StubHub. While we don’t know the exact financial arrangement, StubHub’s head of Global Communications, Glenn Lehrman, told the Star it is lucrative. “They do very well, let’s put it that way,” he said.

Fans, on the other hand, do less well. Some 45 per cent of all seats for Thursday’s opening day game were sold on StubHub, the reporters found, at an average mark up of 205 per cent. That rate of inflation will rightly be illegal under the incoming provincial legislation, which will caps mark-ups at 50 per cent as of July 1.

As Richard Powers, associate professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, said, the Jays’ deal with StubHub is “deceptive and dishonest.” If the team claims to charge $18 for a seat, it should do what it can to ensure that’s the price its fans pay. It the team wants to charge more for tickets, it should be transparent about that.

It certainly shouldn’t profit from partnering with those who would abuse technology to control supply, thereby unnaturally driving up the price. Such scalpers are the enemies of fans. They should be the enemy of the Blue Jays.

The Jays should treat their fans better. It may also be in their interest.

As we saw during the 25 years of losing that followed the back-to-back World Series triumphs of the early 90s, baseball attendance in Toronto is conditional in a way that hockey attendance is not. For more than a decade, Jays games were among the league’s least attended. Fan support will surely depend on how the team performs on the field, but it may also depend on how the organization treats its fans. The arrangement with scalpers is not only unethical, it may also be risky business.

Blue Jays President Mark Shapiro recently bragged that this season’s opening day would be the most profitable in franchise history. We now have a clue about why. It’s nothing to be proud of.

Read more about: