In 2004 Montreal lost the Expos and it was bittersweet, except for a few diehards who thought one day a team would return, most people thought it was over. Many felt at the time that Major League Baseball and the commissioner (Bud Selig) had completely turned their back on the city and its fans. Fast forward almost 11 years later, baseball has a new commissioner (Rob Manfred) and is showing potential to bringing a team back to Montreal.
In 2014 and 2015 a total of four exhibition games were played in the Olympic stadium and nearly 200,000 fans were there to enjoy the Toronto Blue Jays face the New Mets and Cincinnati Reds in four games. After the games in March, Manfred said that Montreal had passed the first test, showing the MLB world that Montreal fans are there and want their team back.
There is still a lot more work to be done to get a team back, but a positive note for going forward was Manfred and Montreal Mayor, Denis Coderre, having a meeting in New York on May 28th to talk about the future of MLB in the city. Coderre didn’t give much away from the meeting but seemed very happy with this small step in the right direction.
What Coderre was able to tell us was that he and Manfred talked about hosting three to four regular season games in Montreal next season at the Olympic stadium. He also hinted that at least seven teams have expressed interest in playing a series in Montreal.
The potential of a series of regular season games in the summer time would be a dream come true for many baseball fans in Montreal. If an average of 48 000 fans were willing to go to exhibition games, imagine having games in the Big O that actually matter where teams need to win games. Imagine the games in June, or July when more people are free in the summer time and tourism is high with all the other fun festivals and other summer activities.
The question now is when will we find out if these games will happen, and which teams will be in them? There is a lot of great potential here; it is probably safe to say that the Blue Jays are one of the potential teams that are interested in coming as they have hinted at the idea before. The Jays have also been trying very hard to build a fan base out of Quebec by hosting these exhibition games and they probably wouldn’t like it if they weren’t at least one of the teams playing in Montreal.
Who the other teams are, only time will tell. If I had to take a guess here it could possibly be the Oakland A’s, Tampa Bay Rays, or any team that doesn’t always fill their own stadium every game. Or perhaps teams like the New York Mets, LA Dodgers, or the Atlanta Braves whom might want to reacquaint themselves with their former rival city. Whichever teams grace Montreal with their presence you can be sure they will be welcomed with open arms (except the Nationals).
For now all Montreal baseball fans can do is wait and see what will happen next. But one thing is for sure: Major League Baseball and Montreal seem to be embracing each other again and one day the Expos, or another team will be able to call the city home again.
Nick’s Note: One thing to note is that the Quebec Provincial government came out to say that they know that people want a team back. They like the progress that is being made but there is no money committed right now to a new stadium. A private sector will be required to step in to make a new stadium happen. It’s safe to say that after dealing with the many problems the Olympic stadium caused that everyone in Quebec agrees.
