Montreal Expos final home game at Olympic Stadium on Sept. 29. 2004.
Last month the New York Daily News reported Tampa Bay Rays owner Stu Sternberg has held discussions with “wealthy Wall Street associates” about the Rays moving to Montreal. But there are several issues facing a possible move, including a couple of which plagued the Expos at the end of their time. The biggest issue surrounding the possible move is getting people to a game. Tampa Bay has struggled to draw fans to games, finishing last (17,857) in average attendance in 2014 despite offering a competitive and entertaining on-field product in recent years.
Fan attendance wasn’t an issue when baseball returned to Montreal in March 2014. The Blue Jays played two exhibition games at Olympic Stadium in front of more than a combined 96,000 fans, and will return on April 3rd and 4th in 2015 to play two exhibition games against the Reds. The turnout caught the eye of MLB commissioner Bud Selig and MLB chief information officer John McHale Jr., who was in attendance for the exhibitions. “It did make a great impression,” Selig said in the Toronto Sun. “I was impressed and I talked to a lot of people there. They have much work to be done, but that was very, very impressive, no question about it.” Though there’s hope from new reports, Montreal must present a viable business plan to attract Sternberg and the Rays.
Right now, there isn’t a suitable stadium in Montreal — Olympic Stadium is old — but there is there is a workable solution: use the formula Quebec City is using to build the $400 million Quebecor Hockey Arena. The financing for the arena is a combination of public (taxpayer) and private (corporate-sponsorship) dollars, so a potential partnership between the city of Montreal and Bell Globe Media, owners of both TSN and RDS, two of Canada’s biggest cable sports networks, could work.
As for the Rays, despite consistent 90-win seasons with one of the lowest payrolls in baseball, they played to a half-empty stadium night after night and there is growing belief that the economically depressed Tampa Bay area won’t support the Rays no matter where they play. Rays owner announced that the team’s 2015 payroll would be reduced — citing falling attendance — which would affect the team’s ability to finance a new stadium. The Rays have tried and failed at putting together a plan to finance the building of a new stadium, but generating revenue to pay for it is proving difficult and as a major-league official put it: “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”.
We should remain hopeful… see you at the Big O in April… if you want in on tickets, let me know!
