OT: All-Purpose Expos Return Topic (Part II)

[Tighthead]

Personally, I'd have zero interest in going to a minor league baseball game, but I plan on buying partial season tickets if / when we get an MLB team.

I'm sure I'n not alone in this thought process.

Plus, no one is going to build a stadium for a CanAm team, and no one is going to go to Olympic Stadium more than they have to.

I go to a game or two in Ottawa each year. It’s a decent night out but I don’t see any correlation between having that team and MLB. Canada had a pro baseball league that failed miserably.

 

[HabsDood]

View attachment 207221

Mr Met says: "Take a bulldozer to Nationals Park and bring back the Expos!!!"

What is Nationals Park? In DC? Don't they enjoy the Nationals?

 

[sabremike]

What is Nationals Park? In DC? Don't they enjoy the Nationals?

You missed the point: I was saying bring the Expos home from DC back to Montreal where they belong!

 

[sabremike]

I go to a game or two in Ottawa each year. It’s a decent night out but I don’t see any correlation between having that team and MLB. Canada had a pro baseball league that failed miserably.

Is the team coming back? Was hearing last year they could be done (was also hearing the whole Can-Am was in trouble as well).

 

[Tighthead]

Is the team coming back? Was hearing last year they could be done (was also hearing the whole Can-Am was in trouble as well).

No clue, but it surely doesn’t look sustainable when I attend.

 

[HabsDood]

You missed the point: I was saying bring the Expos home from DC back to Montreal where they belong!

Might as well just grab Tampa's at this point. I think the Nats are there to stay.

 

[donghabs98]

Might as well just grab Tampa's at this point. I think the Nats are there to stay.

If it wasn't for their lease I'm confident the Rays would be in Montreal by now or in short order. I wonder if Bronfman could make a deal with the city of St. Pete to let the team move to Montreal in exchange for a number of games in Tampa per year until the lease is over. Depending on the conditions I wouldn't be opposed to such a deal if it meant the Expos could return in short order. The Rays player and organization deserves better right now than the current situation since they do have a good group of young players coming up that with a committed ownership group and strong fanbase could thrive.

 

[LeHab]

If it wasn't for their lease I'm confident the Rays would be in Montreal by now or in short order. I wonder if Bronfman could make a deal with the city of St. Pete to let the team move to Montreal in exchange for a number of games in Tampa per year until the lease is over. Depending on the conditions I wouldn't be opposed to such a deal if it meant the Expos could return in short order. The Rays player and organization deserves better right now than the current situation since they do have a good group of young players coming up that with a committed ownership group and strong fanbase could thrive.

Apparently lease grants team owner development rights to a lucrative piece of land around current stadium as long as the lease is respected. Don't know if shared ownership would still fulfill whatever expectation is to ensure current owner retains those rights.

 

[Runner77]

No clue, but it surely doesn’t look sustainable when I attend.

Not sure I understood your reply. Did you mean that you attend Nationals games or CAN AM games?

 

[Runner77]

Just heard about a real off the beaten path show that TSN690 is going to run next Monday at 7PM, hosted by Mitch Melnick.

They're going to air the broadcast of the first ever Expos game. They will add sound bytes from other sources and Melnick will be live.

This feels like a real life Elvis Gratton moment.

 

[Tighthead]

Not sure I understood your reply. Did you mean that you attend Nationals games or CAN AM games?

Ottawa Champions.

 

[Scintillating10]

They wouldn't support the team back when they had one. Now, there is big tv involved Montrealers have discovered they actually do love baseball? They had 20 years to support the Expos and wouldn't. I think what they actually love is the American greenbacks and thoughts of getting a new stadium. Not the Expos

 

[Le Tricolore]

They wouldn't support the team back when they had one. Now, there is big tv involved Montrealers have discovered they actually do love baseball? They had 20 years to support the Expos and wouldn't. I think what they actually love is the American greenbacks and thoughts of getting a new stadium. Not the Expos

Expos had great fan support for a very long time (Cue @Harry22 to point out the numbers I don't feel like looking up). Their last few years no one was showing up since it didn't matter anymore. The team had no ownership, and wasn't willing to even try to compete.

When the team gets beaten into the ground so many times, with so many threats of moving or contracting, it's hard to get excited. There was also no way to follow the team other than on the radio. It's hard to get attached to a team in the late 90s and early 2000s without ever watching them play.

 

[Harry22]

They wouldn't support the team back when they had one. Now, there is big tv involved Montrealers have discovered they actually do love baseball? They had 20 years to support the Expos and wouldn't. I think what they actually love is the American greenbacks and thoughts of getting a new stadium. Not the Expos

@Le Tricolore

Is Chicago a terrible hockey town? Because from the 90's until their owner died in 2007, they had empty arenas because of:

- Terrible teams
- Home games not on TV unless it was sold out (which never happened)
- Spent no money
- Kept losing

That was pretty much the Expos from the time Bronfman sold the team in 1991 to 2004 but with more:

- Terrible indoor stadium in the middle of nowhere
- No english games on radio
- Complete firesale every time they had good players
- Played 20 "home" games in another country in the final 2 years
- MLB has stated many times the Expos were gonna move from 1998 on.

The Expos were top 5 in attendance in the NL throughout the late 70's to the mid 80's.

I could add more but I have to get back to work.

 

[ahmedou]

Consult Pointe St. Charles. And the other territories surronding the Peel Basin. Communicate and go debate about this whole project.

 

[Runner77]

They wouldn't support the team back when they had one. Now, there is big tv involved Montrealers have discovered they actually do love baseball? They had 20 years to support the Expos and wouldn't. I think what they actually love is the American greenbacks and thoughts of getting a new stadium. Not the Expos

Who is "they"? Fans who chose to not pay for firesales?

How would you like to cheer for any team that traded all of its best players just before they were due for a raise or a long term deal?

 

[GoodKiwi]

I became a Jays fan out of necessity but I'll turn on them faster than Savage on Hogan the very moment the Expos are back.

It's the opposite for me. By now my connection with the Jays is too strong for a MTL team to break it up. I am going to continue to cheer for the Jays even if we had a local team in place.

Doesn't mean I will be sour on the Expos if they returned. I would attempt to grab a pair of season tickets for their games even.

 

[ahmedou]

They wouldn't support the team back when they had one. Now, there is big tv involved Montrealers have discovered they actually do love baseball? They had 20 years to support the Expos and wouldn't. I think what they actually love is the American greenbacks and thoughts of getting a new stadium. Not the Expos

The ancients owners let down the Expos...

 

[Runner77]

This was unreal, yesterday. Vlad Jr. making his way to Rogers Centre sporting his dad's Expos jersey.

 

[ahmedou]

This was unreal, yesterday. Vlad Jr. making his way to Rogers Centre sporting his dad's Expos jersey.

1st signing?

 

[LeHab]

1st signing?

Vlad Sr has 8 kids not sure how many are boys but Vlad jr. is the oldest. Hopefully others are as gifted as Jr. and play baseball...maybe one day.

With Wilton who also made the majors (and was Jr's primary coach) that is already quite a baseball family.

Pedro Martinez Jr. already signed with Detroit in 2017.

 

[JianYang]

It's the opposite for me. By now my connection with the Jays is too strong for a MTL team to break it up. I am going to continue to cheer for the Jays even if we had a local team in place.

Doesn't mean I will be sour on the Expos if they returned. I would attempt to grab a pair of season tickets for their games even.

It was possible to like both the Jays and expos. They were in different leagues and only started playing each other when interleague became a thing in the late 90s.

When push came to shove, I was much more emotionally connected to the expos though.

Toronto could never fully grab me after the expos left, because I soured on the MLB as a whole. These days, my interest very minimal, and can only be renewed if the expos somehow came back.

 

[SubyDubyTML]

Bronfman and company will be making a major announcement on May 15th.

I wonder if they'll be presenting their stadium plans.

 

[ahmedou]

Many major announcements. I had to recapitulate. From the beginning. With an historical timeline. When the discussions began from the Expo's possibilities to return at the MLB.

 

[ahmedou]

Retractable roof ?

No retractable roof?