2007-05-13 13:52:09 · 16 answers · asked by EwwMcD24 1 in Sports ➔ Baseball
Montreal wasn't a baseball town.
Only hockey is important.
2007-05-15 07:21:58 · answer #1 · answered by recqui 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Unfortunately, baseball just never generated much interest in Montreal. Baseball and other sports will always play a minor role behind hockey and winter sports in ths city. The only time the team had a good chance to win the title (1994) the league shut down because of the strike. Baseball never recovered from this and attendance went down hill. Don't think even a fresh start with a new team would stir up enough interest in the sport again to justify Montreal getting a team. Sad but probably true!
2007-05-13 22:27:34 · answer #2 · answered by P.I. Stingray 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They probably won't but it's not because there's not enough interest in Montreal. When the Expos fielded good teams, they drew over 2 million fans per season. In fact, in 1982 and 1983 they outdrew the Yankees.
Montreal fans rightly felt slighted by the 1994 strike which crippled their team's ability to hold onto players. The final straw was the whole Jeffery Loria affair. Loria sabotaged the franchise by refusing to negotiate local and radio deals several times during his ownership tenure. He was then rewarded by MLB when they sold him the Marlins. Pouring more salt into the wounds, in order to allow Loria to switch the Expos were sold to the other 29 owners - a clear conflict of interest - who then watched idly as their appointed GM Omar Minaya decimated the farm system with several poorly concieved deals that sent top prospects like Grady Sizemore, Milton Bradley and Cliff Lee to other teams. No budget for free agents and trading away all the top prospects is not a good formula for generating fan interest.
Any franchise that had been managed as poorly as the Expos were during their last decade of existence would have drawn as poorly.
The primary reason baseball won't be returning to Montreal any time soon is because Stade Olympique is aging and cost nearly C$1.5 billion to construct and maintain,. The people there have no stomach to pay for a new stadium given the expense and all that has happened.
2007-05-13 23:21:57 · answer #3 · answered by Trace Wood 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not likely - Montreal spent 35 years proving they had no interest in baseball; I'm sure not much has changed in the last three years or will ever change for that matter. MLB isn't going to put a team in a market that isn't fully exploitable (and we all know how good MLB is at explotation).
2007-05-14 09:23:13 · answer #4 · answered by blue26 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If Montreal does, it will take as long as it took Washington to get a baseball team again.
2007-05-13 21:08:43 · answer #5 · answered by Mike S 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't think Montreal will ever get another baseball team in the MLB. There isn't enough interest nor is there a decent stadium.
2007-05-13 21:03:53 · answer #6 · answered by a1a5g6 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No. People in Montreal don't like baseball. I think they like the Canadians, maybe the Alouettes, and that's it. The last ten years of seeing the Expos from afar was tough to watch.
2007-05-13 22:30:23 · answer #7 · answered by Patrick M 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I went to an Expos game once, the attendance that night was about 5000 (fans?). Our class A minor league team outdraws that. The only baseball that you will see up there will be little league.
2007-05-13 21:49:43 · answer #8 · answered by dj 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Quebecois people like hockey and that's about it. adding another baseball team in Quebec would be pointless
2007-05-13 22:05:42 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Possibly; if they can find enough people with lots of money and zero sense .The major league owners are always willing to take some saps money.
2007-05-13 22:31:01 · answer #10 · answered by denlp96 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋