As the MLB playoffs heat up during October with the American League’s Toronto Blue Jays representing Canada in the post-season, some baseball fans might remember the nation’s other former team: The Montreal Expos. If some in the city have their way, when Major League Baseball next expands, Canada may get a second team that plays in a new downtown ballpark in La Metropole.
The original Expos de Montréal played from 1969 until 2004 when the team was moved to Washington, D.C., and became the Washington Nationals.
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While MLB has not introduced a formal process for teams to bid for an expansion team or even confirmed they’re willing to expand to 32 teams, the French-Canadian metropolis is already putting its foot on the gas to land a team.
A recent report from a Montreal radio station says the renewed interest of MLB to expand has caused interest groups in Montreal to accelerate their efforts. Montreal, in the province of Quebec, is culturally diverse and has continued to grow since the Expos moved out. But would it be a good idea for professional baseball to return?
Former GM Jim Duquette supports MLB bring baseball back to Montreal
“Boy, I would love it, you know? I’ve got a lot of family members up there still. So I’m French Canadian myself. I’d love to go back and see them,” said Jim Duquette, former general manager of the New York Mets and cousin of former Expos GM Dan Duquette. “But you know, I think it’s a fascinating thing if they can build a stadium and it sounds like, you know, they’ve committed to one downtown in the downtown area. That to me, has always been the way that baseball could exist in Montreal.”
Who and how to land a team remain big questions as the only ownership — the Montreal Baseball Group — headed by Stephen Bronfman and Mitch Garber, has said it isn’t interested in moving a team nor applying for an expansion franchise. The Bronfman group tried and failed to convince MLB to share a team between Montreal and Tampa as the Rays continue to struggle with attendance, which was evident when this week’s playoff game at Tropicana Field boasted the smallest playoff crowd since 1919.
Concordia University economics professor Moshe Lander said the idea is preposterous and doesn’t believe the area has the stomach nor the resources to make a new Expos happen.
“I don’t see a potential ownership group,” Lander told the Montreal Gazette. “It’s a lot of money to pay for nostalgia, and that is what fans want: remembering what it was like in the 1980s or 1990s, especially the strike year in 1994. Fans love nostalgia. That team generates fond memories. Younger people want basketball and soccer.”
But Lander could be offbase. Back in 2013, the Montreal Baseball Project, unrelated to Bronfman’s group, conducted a feasibility study and it found that 69% of those surveyed in Quebec and 81% of business owners in the area welcomed MLB’s return.
Other MLB expansion targets could include Charlotte, Portland, and Nashville. All three of those markets could be lucrative for baseball, but none can touch the size of Montreal. Boasting a population of over 4.5 Million, it’s the largest city in the U.S. or Canada without a major league baseball team.
The size of the market and how much it has changed since the days of the original Expos, thanks to technology and media, mean the team could tap more into the Northeast United States market who couldn’t listen to or watch the team in its first incarnation.
Although no ownership groups have stepped forward, reports indicate a growing interest. There isn’t an interest in public funding for a retractable roof stadium, which could derail those who want to bring baseball back to the city.
Whether or not it’s just a bunch of nostalgia or the real deal, Montreal is flush with baseball talk again.