It's a shame that Montreal has taken so long to catch onto baseball.
I really do think that at the moment, if MLB relocated/created another franchise in Montreal, it would be successful.
It's too bad that this time may be 20 years from now.
EXPOS!!
Why would it be successful now and not 10-20 years ago? They would need a new stadium and some fans...there are only about 10,000 die hard fans in Montreal, you need 30,000 to 40,000.
Why would it be successful now and not 10-20 years ago? They would need a new stadium and some fans...there are only about 10,000 die hard fans in Montreal, you need 30,000 to 40,000.
Agreed, the only way it would work is with a new Stadium, no way people go to the Big O in the East end
I'm not a fan of baseball but wow, what an exciting night. RDS did a great job IMO.
Watched my first baseball game on RDS last night. Do they always use the "strike zone" graphic? It reminds me of when ABC? had the neon blue tails on hockey pucks..... ugh
Ok, just to be sure what teams I will never root for (Selig's and Loria's)
- Marlins?
- Brewers?
- Red Sox?
- Blue Jays? (lol)
- Nationals?
They are no longer the Blue Jays
Don't know why but I actually want them to do well, I never hated them and they play in a really though division. If they would do better than the Sox or Yankees I think most people(not fans of those teams) would be very happy
Ok, just to be sure what teams I will never root for (Selig's and Loria's)
- Marlins?
- Brewers?
- Red Sox?
- Blue Jays? (lol)
- Nationals?
I think the red sox are fine...Loria basically swapped teams to get the marlins for almost free & then held the city hostage to get his park built at the Florida taxpayer's expense but that's another story. I'd add the yanks to that list as Loria was friends with Steinbrenner & rumor was he was pissed that his revenue sharing dollars were going to the expos & brochu was pocketing the profit. Hence he got his buddy to get rid of them.
On another note I went to fenway this summer...if you've never been, you have to go, what a park!
Don't know why but I actually want them to do well, I never hated them and they play in a really though division. If they would do better than the Sox or Yankees I think most people(not fans of those teams) would be very happy
I like Jose Batista though; super super player, and his teammates love the guy, so he must be a nice person
I like the Yankees; all the signs point to me liking the Yankees (sorry Guinness Time)
- before I started watching baseball , the first (and only to date, It's still around) baseball hat I've bought is NYY one
- My favorite show is Seinfeld, and Costanza worked with the Yankees
- my favorite player is Jeter
OMG the signs
I still hate A-Rod though
Last edited by McSorleyStick: 09-29-2011 at 10:45 AM.
Perfect night yesterday followed by an extreme sad day....Miss the Expos, but moreso, miss the fact that EVERY DAY during summer time, you had your favorite team to watch.
One thing I know....there would have been 50 000 people yesterday if we would have been the Rays. Okay, maybe the rest of the year is more problematic...I know.
Melnick was grumbling about that on Twitter and you can see his point.
The Tuesday night in May vs the A's with the Habs in the playoffs? Yeah, 10,000. But they'd have been hanging off the roof at the Big O for Wednesday night's game if the Rays played in MTL.
To those saying we wouldn't have enough fans to fill a stadium, that is just not true. We didn't lose interest in our team, we lost interest in the sport. Much like Winnipeg did with the Jets. Why?
1) The Canadian dollar. Even if the Expos could compete with the big dogs salary-wise, our dollar was near the 60 cent level for much of the 90's. So at best, even if we 'earned' as much as a big market team, we still had a huge handicap. Our market is at best a mid-level market as well. Not small though. Thats just not true.
2) No salary cap. Lack of parity almost killed the NHL in most of Canada. It killed baseball in Canada. (Toronto is only now becoming a reasonaby top 10 market in MLB, despite having a top 10 population amongst cities with a MLB team). Its also killing baseball in lots of small US markets, which is over half the league. Everyone goes on and on about how TB is a great small market model to follow. The same was said of Oakland. KC is now poised to make a run as well. Simply put though, just like Oakland, TB and KC will eventually go back to sucking when all their developed young guys (save a couple they are able to sign) run off to the Yankees/Sox/Phillies/Angels. No team can develop young talent at a rate needed to overcome free-agency attrition. Meanwhile, the big clubs get to develop their young guys AND have the best of the small market teams' players too. Montreal fans rightly started losing interest as our favorite stars ended up elsewhere. Plenty of other small market MLB teams are facing the same problem. Its not a Montreal thing by any means.
3) No stadium worth a damn, and no willingness to fund it publicly. The early-mid 90's was a period of budget balancing. You think the US has budget issues now? Ours in the 90's were worse. So the thought of spending even a dime of federal or provincial $ was laughable.
You fix these 3 issues, and baseball will work very well in Montreal.
Issue 1 is fixed.
Issue 3 is a requirement to even discuss a team. No stadium downtown, don't even bother. However, like the hockey rink in Quebec City, the governments will get on board a proposal that makes sense. No, they won't pay entirely for a stadium to bring a team into a league as messed up as MLB is right now. (Which was the issue in the late 90's. The government balked, rightly so, at funding a new stadium when the other underlying problems were still there.) But I'm sure they'd be willing to pony up some (half?) if a Montreal MLB franchise looked like it could compete longterm (read: salary cap).
Issue 2 is a whopper though, will undoubtedly require a strike, and is years (decades?) away from happening. A shame too, because the NHL is witnessing firsthand how quickly growth can come when a reasonable semblance of parity is found. Until a cap is put in place, I don't even want a team here. One decade of watching our best players get cherrypicked by the 4-5 big dogs is enough, thanks.
(sorry Guinness Time)
