Why is Toronto is the only city in Canada to have a team in the MLB and NBA?

Question

Why don't they have a MLB and NBA team in Vancouver, Quebec, Montreal, and etc. besides Toronto?

Answer 1

The Expos were in Montreal from 1969 to 2005. Vancouver had a NBA team. In both cases, they could not sustain themselves financially. Quebec city and Winnipeg both had NHL teams and lost them to US cities for the same reason. Canada's population is too low and it's economy is too weak to compete with the US in the sports world. Sponsorships are also US-based. For years, the CAD was worth 50-75 cents to the USD. Even though that has changed recently, it's not enough to make a difference!

Answer 2

MLB used to have a team in Canada, the Expos. The Expos were actually the irst team in Canada. The Expos moved to Washington and are known as the Nationals. The NBA had the Grizzlies, who were in Vancouver before their owner moved them to Memphis. Both moves are recent.

Toronto is the biggest city in Canada and (no offense to other fine Canadian cities), Toronto is the most cosmopolitan. Basically, Toronto and Ontario is like Canada's New York City. A lot of other Canadians complain about Ontario and Toronto's innfluence on the rest of the country, but thats where the money is (though Vancouver is great too).

Answer 3

Because of the strike in '94 the Expos fans stopped supporting the team forcing the franchise to move to Washington D.C. to become the Nationals. The general feeling is that only Toronto has enough support to run a MLB team both financially and fan support.

The same thing happened with the Vancouver Grizzlies who are now the Memphis Bobcats.

You have to keep in mind that hockey DOMINATES Canada as the favorite sport.

Answer 4

Montreal doesn't have an MLB team because MLB hates Montreal. MLB threw away their chance at the WS in 1994 because they wanted to break the union and knew that a Montreal WS would be a low ratings WS in the States so they felt that they weren't missing anything. They let Loria ruin that franchise before letting him destroy the Marlins. MLB took over the team and got upset when Minaya tried to bolster the team for a playoff run their last real year in the Majors. MLB sent them to play in Puerto Rico thus alienating any remaining fans then announced that they were pulling out of Montreal a couple hours before their last home game.

People say that Montreal was an embarrassment on baseball but it was by far the other way around. Montreal would have supported the Expos had their front office tried/been allowed to fuel a contender. The Twins were in the same boat at one point and we know how they turned out.

Then MLB has people vote last year for their favorite all time players from each team. For the Nationals/Expos they had Gary Carter but left off Andre Dawson and Tim Raines apparantly to make room for the likes of Brian Schneider, no offence to Brian.

Sorry, the whole thing still ticks me off...

Answer 5

Toronto is the most populous city and largest metropolitan area in Canada and the 7th most populous in North America, so it is large enough to provide a solid fan base. The only other city in Canada that is large enough would be Montreal, but the French language and culture of the province of Quebec has long made it difficult for American sports to really get a toehold there. Montreal was home to MLB's Expos for several decades but the team never had strong attendance, and mismanagement of the team for the last decade or so it was there doomed the franchise.

Answer 6

You must have forgot at some point, up until 2004, Canada had 2 baseball teams, the other team was Montreal Expos, but the biggest problem that they were facing at least this decade, was attendance, they just couldn't get people to come for games, so they chose to move, and that is what they did, so 2004 was what turned out to be the final season in Montreal, but I am glad that you were reminded that there were 2 teams. Now as far as basketball, they got only one fanchise, and that was the Toronto Raptors, so it seems to me that baseball and basketball aren't very popular sports in Canada. But it seems that hockey is very popluar since they have more then one team. I just hope that you aren't suggesting that the Blue Jays and the Raptors move out of Canada and into the USA. But hey having 1 team in these 2 sports, are better then having no teams in either of these 2 sports.

Answer 7

They had a MLB team in Montreal, but inept ownership killed off any hope of one coming back again. It was the same way with Vancouver, inept ownership pretty much killed off any hope for the team to work out in Vancouver, and moved to Memphis. You also have to figure, unless the Canadian market is super lucritive, other than Toronto, which is about as large as most of the world's cities, you really arent gonna get much from putting a team in a Canadian city.

Answer 8

Economics are the main reason, high Canadian income taxes mean playres don't want to play in Canada, Montreal's failure to support a team for 30 years, even though they were a winning franchise with some exceptional players, are the primary reasons there aren't more teams in Canada.

Answer 9

I believe that Vancouver could sustain a baseball team, unlike Montreal. It is closer to a populated US city, and is not French Canadien. Also the lax laws on Weed would also appeal to many laid back baseball fans. I know I'd go see them play and eat a ton of stadium food if I was in the Northwest.

Answer 10

because there doesnt seem to be that much interest in bringing baseball to ottawa or vancouver or calgary, and after the last strike the fans of montreal started to get tired of baseball, and at the time the canadian dollar was weak