Report: Rays owner discussed move to Montreal

[Dion]

Baseball to return to Montreal?

As for the Rays, the Friedman/Maddon defections signal a return to losing baseball and irrelevance in Tampa. Yes, both of them opted out for significant increases in salary, but after last year’s disappointing 77-85 fourth-place finish, they both realized they’d done all they could do in Tampa, and despite consistent 90-win seasons with one of the lowest payrolls in baseball, the Rays played to a half-empty (or worse) stadium night after night. That, more than anything, wore on Maddon and his players, the manager told confidants.

Rays owner Stuart Sternberg has been frustrated in his efforts to get out of Tropicana Field in St. Pete and move to a new stadium in Tampa, but there is growing belief that the economically depressed Tampa Bay area won’t support the Rays no matter where they play. And according to sources, Sternberg has had discussions with wealthy Wall Street associates about moving the Rays to Montreal, which has been without a major-league franchise since the Expos were transferred to Washington in 2005. As one major-league official put it to me Friday: “Say what you will about Montreal, but the Expos drew well over two million fans four times there in their heyday, while the Rays did that only once, their first year.

[Senator Clay Davis]

I grew up in Montreal. The city has enough fan support if they build a stadium that isn't a cavernous dump like the Big O. And if Tampa refuses to build a new stadium they're certainly gone. So maybe this might actually happen

[getbak]

This would be great.

I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for the Expos. Although, the reason I became a fan in the first place was that they played in the National League and the Jays played in the American, so I'd be torn if Montreal had an American League team (I still have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of Milwaukee being in the NL and Houston in the AL).

Having teams in both Montreal and Toronto in the same division would be interesting. I wonder how the Orioles, Yankees, and Red Sox would feel about that?

[Senator Clay Davis]

Oh I'm sure the other AL East teams would love it. Tampa is an obvious travel outlier being 3 hours away. Montreal would mean everything is no more than a 90 minute flight away.

[Sylvanfan]

The big O might be the worst construction project in Canadian history.

A nice downtown stadium, and I think they could draw pretty well. The key is getting a stadium done in a corrupt environment like Quebec.

[GirlySports]

Maybe world history.

It was forward thinking though. A retractable roof in 1976

[Sylvanfan]

Nice idea, deplorable execution. It was like 25 later until they got one on, and it still didn't work.

[Tyler]

Can you build a baseball stadium in Montreal without a roof and expect to play home games in April?

[shermanator]

If a team does return to Montreal, I imagine a lot of Canadian fans disgruntled with the Jays will switch allegiances to Montreal.

[alan21]

The Montreal Canadiens seems to be in every other Heritage Classic game so now they can have the freeze your goodies off experience all April to watch their baseball team if there was to be a roofless stadium.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by shermanator

If a team does return to Montreal, I imagine a lot of Canadian fans disgruntled with the Jays will switch allegiances to Montreal.

A lot of Canadians were Expos fans first.

Would be weird if they were in the AL.

[OzSome]

I actually cheered for Montreal Expos more than the Blue Jays back then. Andre Dawson, Gary Carter, Tim Raines, and others. I only started cheering for the Blue Jays when the Expos left.

[Barnet Flame]

I've never really warmed to the Jays. Even though they won two world series, the golden age of baseball for me was the Expos team of the early 80s.

Andre Dawson, Tim Raines and Gary Carter brought glamour to the game for me - they were amazing and I am sure I would have spontaneously combusted had they won the World Series.

edit - it also helped that my Social Studies teacher was baseball mad and had us watching them in 81.

[Tyler]

The 'Spos in the AL East would be awesome. So many good rivalries from the get-go!

[zyzz]

Would be cool to see for sure. Wonder what the time-line on this would be? Maybe play a season or two in current dump of a stadium while something else is in the works?

[dammage79]

I'd actually pay attention to Baseball again if The Expos came back. Hopefully the name is not trademarked and held by the Nationals.

[Tyler]

Originally Posted by dammage79

I'd actually pay attention to Baseball again if The Expos came back. Hopefully the name is not trademarked and held by the Nationals.

They would hand over the name in a heartbeat if baseball returned to Montreal

[seattleflamer]

I went to McGill in the mid 90s and it was nice having those loaded teams with no crowds. I saved a lot of money buying the cheapies and walking down but boy that '94 team was WS bound...wudda, shudda.

I'd love the Expos back in Montreal and being in the AL East would do a lot to stir interest in baseball especially with rivalries creating the best atmosphere. However, having local ownership and an essentially free stadium didn't seem to solve their constant financial woes in the past.

A need for a stadium deal, the dynamics of Quebec politics, fluctuations in the currency are too many variables for any business to take this seriously unless the Bronfmans or I guess it would be the Saputos now have another charity they want to fund.

Get a hard salary cap like the NHL and then maybe.

[Zarley]

I've heard quite a few rumours about Bell being interested in bringing baseball back to Montreal now that they've lost the NHL rights. Plenty of airtime to fill on those 5 TSN feeds.

I really hope it happens, I'd love to switch my allegiance back from the Jays.

[Sylvanfan]

^^^
Yeah with the dollar falling here, what would the upside be in the market? The T.V. Money wouldn't be great due to the language thing. Really it would be trying to run the current Rays with better crowds. Plus Montreal will always have the language issues.

But that lockout really hurt because that was their year. Claude Brochu was a piece of work too, pretty much knew that if he spent nothing he would get enough revenue sharing to make a profit.