Throughout the recent World Series baseball fans were regaled with the exploding total in the Blue Jays World Series 50/50 draw. When the L.A.Dodgers finally subdued the Jays in the seventh game the total had skyrocketed to a whopping $50,020,115— half of which was won by a fan from Oshawa, Ont.

That means that $25,010,055 was donated to Jays Care Foundation which then sends money to worthy charities and causes supported by the Blue Jays. A number of those charities are identified by the team in its publicity. Win/ win, right?

Should be. But how much of the $25,010,055 devoted to charities and sports organizations goes to administer the draw? We examined the rules printed online and the financial records to see the distribution of those funds. “At Jays Care, every dollar of net revenue, after prize payouts and raffle-related expenses are deducted, goes directly to supporting kids in Jays Care programming.”

To the unwashed public that says that $25,010,055 is going completely to the charities;. Wait, they said “net revenue” and “raffle-related expenses” Okay, what constitutes net revenue? What are raffle-related expenses? In the 2024 statements for Jays Care Foundation, general and administration total is $324,321 after raising $21,234,364 . Seems like to might be worth noting.

This is not to suggest that the Jays Care lotteries are not what they seem on the surface. Or they do not have a charitable component. We have been unable to find any reporting on the draw that implies or states something shady. Or any reporting from Toronto’s vast media mob into just how these draws work. Still, the public should know how much of the prize money they’re donating goes to the charity. Because you won’t get it from listening to the team games on TV which marvel at the 50/50 amounts.

The Jays’ draw is worth noting, because there have been questions raised about other large sports 50/50 draws. The charity in charge of the Edmonton Oilers 50/50 raffles paid more than $81 million in lottery funds over four years to Win50, a sports betting and gaming company controlled by the Oilers Entertainment Group, according to audited financial statements obtained by the Investigative Journalism Foundation.

The IJF found that only 19.6 percent of the 50/50 raffle proceeds went to charity in 2024. The Oilers did not deny the claim, but did say that the charitable aspect of the draws and the publicity they generate far outweighs the costs in running the draws. “By focusing on expense ratios and purposely ignoring the millions of dollars in legitimate operational costs covered by WIN50, the IJF misleads readers about our how our 50/50 operates and our overall charitable impact.” Weak sauce, no?

Sources who spoke to us said that, in one case a capture of $550K returned just 10 percent— $55K— to their charity. The rest disappeared to pay bills and distribute funds as the organizers saw fit. Oh, and the charities must sign NDAs to keep their status as Oilers’ charities. There may be some legitimate reasons for the silence so far on the draws. But that was not communicated by the Oilers to their fans up front or in their response to the IJF.

It is reminiscent of stories we wrote for the Calgary Herald in the early 2000s about shady practices surrounding NHL oldtimers versus cops or fireman hockey promotions. Until we made it public the companies running the ticket sales oversold the arenas, created fictional handicapped children for donations, returned as little as five percent to charities and more— while never telling the NHL stars about the deception.

The other telling aspect of this Oilers Care story is that it was generated by an independent journalism source— not the main Edmonton media. The IJF is not likely to be getting seats on press row at the Rogers Centre any time soon with this kind of aggressive reporting.

With sports teams now partnering with broadcast and print partners, doing this kind of investigative work will not advance your career. We should know after enduring years of the cold shoulder for our reporting corruption in the NHL under Alan Eagleson and the league (Eagleson went to jail briefly for his fraudulent use of NHL Players Association and Hockey Canada funds.)

Rogers now has its name on numerous arenas and stadia across Canada. It controls MLSE, owners of the Maple Leafs, Raptors, Toronto FC and the Argonauts. Former journalists work for team owners. The government sends “support” money to so-called private broadcasters and newspapers to toe the line. As we wrote in October the PR pitch for Elbows Up has been everywhere in Canadian sport.

“Rogers Media is running commercials during the Blue Jays AL Divisional Series boasting in Liberal red and white “Proud owners of Canada’s national team”. (What team owner has ever put itself above the title on a sports team?) If you haven’t caught that ad there are others Rogers’ ads extolling its magnificence in giving Canada the highest telephone bills this side of Botswana. Oh wait… They say, Go Jays Go, Canada’s national team. Sorry about that.

The team’s announcers are also reading verbatim prefab slugs about the story of the Blue Jays “not being written yet.” (We counted three doing the hype before Gm. 1 of the World Series) Watching the proud-as-punch onslaught from the team’s owner one would think this has to be more than Vlad Guerrero uber alles.”

Watching the willful denial of Canada’s legacy-media death throes is reminiscent of when the big automobile companies were challenged by smaller, more efficient Asian imports in the early 1970s. The Detroit big shots tried ignoring them, then actively enlisted government to stop them. Then, with bankruptcies impending, they copied them. The car market finally became a freer market in North America.

The media elites are at the stage where they’re begging government to excuse their inefficiencies and corruption versus “uncouth” independent media. The protectionist racket won’t work any better than it did for the car makers.  The question now is will they accept the ultimate solution of sharing the field with social media and doing that kind of reporting again? Because, without that reckoning they won’t be here to greet the 2030s.

As Mark Hebscher concludes in his new book Madness, “In the end it’s not so much the stories being covered as the stories being missed.”

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster  A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.