Could major league baseball ever come back?
The Conference Board of Canada thinks that by 2035, Montreal might be ready to host a major-league baseball team again.
This is based on some kind of economic forecast. I don’t think they’re taking everything into account, but I’m just putting this out there.
Josh 11:44 on 2012/08/23 Permalink
The same report suggests Vancouver should get its NBA team back and Toronto should get a second NHL team too. This report is looking at things through a purely economic lens as you say, Kate, and isn’t considering the politics of it all or other factors.
No one should get their hopes up about MLB returning to Montreal. For now, focus on the minor leagues (there’s been talk about Montreal getting a team under the Blue Jays) and just show people that there’s interest in the sport still in the city. Baby steps.
willie granger 11:50 on 2012/08/23 Permalink
Screw the Blue Jays, they voted to contract the Expos, the hell I’d ever go to a minor league game for Toronto.
Marc 11:53 on 2012/08/23 Permalink
I think if we were to ever get a minor league affiliate, it would be with the Red Sox. They were always Montreal’s “second team.” It was never the Blue Jays.
Josh 12:11 on 2012/08/23 Permalink
Well, MLB effectively recognizes all of Canada as the Blue Jays’ “territory” so you can all like it or not, but odds are that if Montreal ever gets an affiliated minor-league team, it’s going to be part of the Toronto organization.
And Marc, Pawtucket, Rhode Island has been the home of the Red Sox AAA club since 1970. What makes you think the major league Red Sox have any interest in ending that affiliation?
Taylor C. Noakes 12:14 on 2012/08/23 Permalink
We should at it the way Drapeau did – pro sports keeps us in ‘visible’ to other cities and their citizens. Baseball and basketball would both ensure more Americans knowing about us, which is ultimately very good for business. An NFL franchise wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
Baby steps in this regard would lie with the city, as it would be responsible for getting a buzz going, such as by supporting exhibition games, one-off games (such as the Buffalo Bills playing in Toronto) and, perhaps most importantly, creation and development of leagues for the city’s youth.
I always wondered why their wasn’t a more direct working relationship between the city’s parks and rec dept, the local school boards and the GMAA.
If we want to avert looking like any Yankee city in twenty years time, we must invest heavily in youth sports.
willie granger 12:17 on 2012/08/23 Permalink
Mayor Bourque yanked out a lot of baseball diamonds and replaced them with soccer fields. We’re seeing a drift back to baseball, it’s a better sports for summertime and there’s been some excellent young teams coming from this city. As for the majors, I would be happy to see us in the AL East, alongside more natural rivals such as Boston, Toronto and the Yanks. Not interested in being a minor league feeder club.
Josh 12:22 on 2012/08/23 Permalink
That’s a good point, Taylor. And it bolsters the case for having the NASCAR race in town.
Personally I always thought it a bit odd that the New England Patriots have never once even (apparently) considered playing a preseason game in Montreal. Maybe the Olympic Stadium, even for preseason, is not up to snuff in the eyes of the NFL?
Kevin 12:29 on 2012/08/23 Permalink
I don’t understand how anyone watches a baseball game, let alone plays one.
What kind of sport is so dull they have to use math and statistics to make it sound exciting?
Taylor C. Noakes 13:19 on 2012/08/23 Permalink
We need to change our mentality a bit.
For one, I don’t want baseball diamonds to replace soccer pitches or vice-versa, that’s idiotic. We need more sports fields of all varieties just about everywhere. The city and agglomeration council should ensure there is even distribution based on where families live and should follow up by centralizing & streamlining minor sports within the metro region. This means the cities’ parks & rec depts., the school boards, GMAA and other established sports authorities will have to cooperate on a higher level.
@Josh – yes, it is, though I despise NASCAR & F1, I’m not about to get on any bandwagons to ban them. I’d love for the city to take a more proactive and progressive role here, possibly by having ‘green’ races wherein the cars use hybrid or electric engines, though that’s highly unlikely unless the mayor really sold the idea well.
As for the Patriots & Big O, again, salesmanship and pro-active leadership, which we don’t currently have in City Hall. I’ll run next year. if there’s money to be made, the all pro sports will come, we just have to sell the idea.
@Kevin – see my last point. I don’t care what your opinion is, people other than yourself will go watch it and it will secure investment, trade, tourism, attention on our city.
This is in fact a fundamental problem holding us back – naysayers say nay because they don’t like it personally, scream and shout about it and boom, the whole thing gets kyboshed. It’s easier to get attention shitting on someone’s idea rather than supporting or proposing one of your own, and here we have the added problem of, when someone proposes something we once had and then (for whatever reason) stopped, the ‘authority points’ go to the person who says ‘we can’t/shouldn’t do x because it failed the last time’.
So many people wondering what to do with the Big O and the answer is in the goddam name – have another Olympics. D’uh. This time, all we need to do is simply not make the same mistakes twice. Doing the opposite of what we did in 1976 led LA84 to become the world’s most profitable Olympiad.
It’s not rocket science, and investing in sport is investing in ourselves, in better bodies and minds. They’re the gifts which keep on giving.
Taylor C. Noakes 13:20 on 2012/08/23 Permalink
*apologies for typos, typed too fast
Marc 14:18 on 2012/08/23 Permalink
@ Kevin: An NFL game is 1000x more dull to watch than an MLB game.
Josh 15:37 on 2012/08/23 Permalink
Taylor, I think the idea of another Olympics for Montreal isn’t a *terrible* one, but that’s in a pie-in-the-sky world where the IOC isn’t concerned with shiny new stadia for each cycle. And if you think the IOC would be willing to award a games to a city without plans for a new, grand stadium, ask yourself: Why did London – home to historic grounds such as Craven Cottage, Stamford Bridge and White Hart Lane as well as very large, modern stadia such as Emirates and the recently re-built Wembley – need to build a new Olympic Stadium? (And then there are some rugby and cricket complexes on top of the ones already named!)
Answer: London didn’t, but the IOC forced it. There is no reason the track and field competition couldn’t have been contested at any number of existing facilities, but the IOC couldn’t have that. No reason to think that Montreal’s maligned, crumbling, existing stadium would be good enough for the IOC in a future bid from Quebec.
Taylor C. Noakes 16:16 on 2012/08/23 Permalink
@Josh Why would the IOC force cities to build new stadiums that sit empty afterwards?
Unless the IOC plays a role in commissioning the contractors, or gets some kind of kick-back, what’s the financial incentive?
My argument would be that doing a game ‘on the cheap’ in terms of recycling existing facilities would net the city & IOC a greater profit margin, and this in turn would be more encouraging from a business stand-point.
And, as mayor, I would insist this project by led by Montreal. If the province and Fed want to participate, I’m happy to take their money, but my city calls its own shots. We can finance it ourselves.
What will they do? Say no? Fuck em, if we come up with the money ourselves, they have no say.
Josh 16:31 on 2012/08/23 Permalink
Taylor: Yes, why would the IOC force such unjustified huge expenditures of time and money? That’s a good question!
It’s about prestige. And I’m not justifying it or arguing in favour of their ways, I’m just saying that’s how it is. You can argue all you like that it *shouldn’t* be so that in a time of austerity around the world, the IOC insists on new construction for its main Olympic venue, but your opinion doesn’t matter much since it’s the IOC that awards the games.
Beijing (Workers’ Stadium; capacity 66K), Athens (Karaiskakis Stadium; capacity 35K), Sydney (Sydney Football Stadium; capacity 45K) and Atlanta (Fulton-County Stadium; capacity 60K) all have (or had at the time) stadia that could have accommodated the larger events that typically happen in the main Olympic stadium, but they all built new facilities. Barcelona is the last host city I can find that used an existing stadium for its games, but even they had to extensively renovate in order to get it up to snuff.
Do you think they would have all done so if the IOC was not insisting on new construction?
Only with a winter games can you get away these days with using almost entirely existing infrastructure (Vancouver, Salt Lake City, Torino all used existing stadia), but only because the IOC is willing to allow it.
Faiz Imam 16:36 on 2012/08/23 Permalink
With the olympic stadium being unusable, as well as probalbe future renovation making it football/soccer exclusive. This city needs a proper baseball stadium. I’d love to go to a few minor league games. The expos sucked bad when I was old enough to appreciate them, and now i feel the lack.
Big event-wise, for now I’m focusing on Canada’s FIFA World Cup 2026 bid. While not a shoe-in it really could happen for us.
Kate 20:21 on 2012/08/23 Permalink
@kevin I tend to agree with you about baseball, but @marc, NFL vs MLB, you know it’s at least partly a matter of taste, and of what you grew up playing or watching and have positive associations with.
@taylor I understand your enthusiasm but I think you’re underestimating the cut-throat competitiveness among cities to grab the Olympics. You could never sell a budget Games based on the fact that we already have some of the installations, because Josh is right, other cities that promised to build vastly expensive new ones would walk all over you. Our stadium is nearly 40 years old and still doesn’t have a proper roof.
I am not all that thrilled about the picture you paint of elite sports. Countries get all crazy and put big, big bucks into training a tiny number of top performers to the max, and then most of them don’t win medals. Meanwhile the rest of the population gets fatter and less fit. Do more people get out and do sports because one guy ran the 100-meter race a hair faster than the others? I doubt it.
Kevin 08:24 on 2012/08/24 Permalink
@Taylor
“and it will secure investment, trade, tourism, attention on our city. ”
-But will that happen without every single overpriced box seat being an overpriced tax writeoff for companies.
Note that I’m complaining not so much about the tax writeoff, but the ridiculous amounts involved. At some point these sports should be self-sustaining instead of demanding subsidies from taxpayers.
For a one-off event (like Nascar) I can understand — bribe the organizing group, the event comes, tourism dollars flow.
But for a team and stadium, that is a lot of money year after year for what is essentially a fight for limited entertainment cash taken from local fans.
Josh 16:06 on 2012/08/24 Permalink
Other consideration in terms of the Olympics returning to Montreal would be that while the Winter Olympics opening and closing ceremonies have been held in indoor stadia (Vancouver in 2010), the Summer games ceremonies never have. So not only would Montreal be trying to convince the IOC to go with an aged stadium that has had concrete chunks fall from it in the past, it would also be trying to convince them to go with an indoor stadium for the summer games for the first time ever.
Kate 19:32 on 2012/08/24 Permalink
Josh, what? The ceremonies for Montreal 1976 must have been held in the Big O. Are you implying that because, at the time, it had no roof, it counted as an outdoor stadium?
Josh 11:20 on 2012/08/27 Permalink
Kate: That’s correct. There was no roof on it at the time, and I don’t think anyone within the Olympic movement truly thinks of the 1976 ceremonies as having happened “indoors”.