Montreal Wants a Team?

[weams]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/montreal-mayor-to-meet-with-rob-manfred-about-bringing-baseball-back-025212957.html

"We will show Mr. Manfred our love for the sport," Coderre said in an interview. "I don't want to negotiate openly, but we'll clearly talk about Montreal."

From 1969 to 2004, the city supported the Montreal Expos. Due to poor attendance, and ownership issues, the club left and relocated to Washington, D.C.

While Manfred has spoken positively about Montreal in the past, he acknowledges that one of the biggest issues the city is facing is a proper stadium.

"The key thing in Montreal would be to have a plan for an adequate facility that could support baseball over the long haul," Manfred told The Canadian Press in March.

Though Olympic Stadium has been the site of well-attended spring games in recent seasons, the park was a major problem during the Expos tenure. Construction forced the team to play elsewhere during their first couple seasons, and the park desperately needed to be renovated during the final years.

Despite the meeting, there's no timetable for a team is relocate, or for MLB to discuss expansion right now. Both Manfred and Coderre refused to discuss how long it might take before Montreal has a team again.

[Shabadoo25]

Hopefully, they get the Rays in some kind of realignment to the NL.

[PeteU]

Looks like Manfred's practicing his best Roger Goodell-esqe "Throw everything against the wall and see what sticks" talk.

There's no market in North America that currently has a ready-to-go stadium funding plan on the table. Not Las Vegas, Portland, San Antonio, or any other frequently mentioned "new market" city.

No team is moving to Montreal to play in Olympic Stadium indefinitely, and MLB isn't going to expand to have a team play in Olympic Stadium indefinitely.

[PeteU]

Hopefully, they get the Rays in some kind of realignment to the NL.

Right now, I think there's a decent chance the Rays get something built in Tampa proper, which is a more centralized location for that metro area than St. Petersburg.

Not sure what will happen with the A's. Right now, both the A's and Raiders are stuck in some sort of purgatory known as the Oakland Coliseum. It's possible that whatever team does leave, the other team will rebuild a sport-specific stadium on the Coliseum spot. If I had to guess, I think the A's have a better chance in staying in Oakland than the Raiders. Raiders will either likely move back down to LA to join up with another team (either the Chargers or Rams), or take over in St. Louis if the Rams leave for LA.

[mdbdotcom]

Baseball needs to expand by two teams. 32 teams would be structured as:

16 teams per league

2 conferences of 8 teams per league

2 divisions of 4 teams per conference

This would make scheduling so much better. Each team would play:

14 games with each of the other 3 teams in its division = 42

10 games with each of the four teams in the other division in its conference = 40

8 games with each of the 8 teams in the other conference = 64

4 games vs. each of 4 inter-league opponents = 16

That adds up to 162 games, with 82 of them in the same conference, fewer games against division opponents, and fewer interleague games.

It also could add more playoff games, with each playoff team a division champion; an equal number of playoff spot without the need for wildcards.

4 best of 7 conference championship series

2 best of 7 league championship series

1 best of 7 world series

[incubus]

Baseball needs to expand by two teams. 32 teams

The biggest issue with expanding to 32 teams is the watering down of the talent.

[srock]

Right now, I think there's a decent chance the Rays get something built in Tampa proper, which is a more centralized location for that metro area than St. Petersburg.

Not sure what will happen with the A's. Right now, both the A's and Raiders are stuck in some sort of purgatory known as the Oakland Coliseum. It's possible that whatever team does leave, the other team will rebuild a sport-specific stadium on the Coliseum spot. If I had to guess, I think the A's have a better chance in staying in Oakland than the Raiders. Raiders will either likely move back down to LA to join up with another team (either the Chargers or Rams), or take over in St. Louis if the Rams leave for LA.

It would make far more sense for the Rays to get a stadium built between Tampa and Orlando, closer to Orlando where the corporate money lives. Disney and Lockheed Martin are right there.

Major commuter routes between the two cities.

Possibility for a rail line between both areas.

They wouldn't alienate the current fanbase, which I think is bigger then it appears. Attendance is low largely due to the poor location of the crappy stadium. Everybody hates the stadium location now. St. Pete is a ghost town in the summer and not easy to get too if you live in Tampa or especially in or around Orlando.

Sorry for the ramble.

[mdbdotcom]

The biggest issue with expanding to 32 teams is the watering down of the talent.

The talent pool keeps growing as MLB expands its global reach.

[Odenton O]

Looks like Manfred's practicing his best Roger Goodell-esqe "Throw everything against the wall and see what sticks" talk.

There's no market in North America that currently has a ready-to-go stadium funding plan on the table. Not Las Vegas, Portland, San Antonio, or any other frequently mentioned "new market" city.

No team is moving to Montreal to play in Olympic Stadium indefinitely, and MLB isn't going to expand to have a team play in Olympic Stadium indefinitely.

Manfred understands that now that DC is out of the picture, he needs another city that he can use to threaten local governments with in order to squeeze them for taxpayer-funded stadiums and upgrades. If there are no obvious choices to be had, might as well get as many options on the table as you can.

[TonySoprano]

From 2000-2002, Montreal drew a total combined 2,381,062. In 2002, attendance was 812,045, comparable to AAA baseball in that year. In 2001, Montreal drew 642,745, bested by Buffalo of the International League (The O's AAA Rochester affiliate drew 455,123)

MLB tested the Puerto Rico market for 2003-2004, and splitting time with Montreal, attendance those two years was 1,775,189. In the first year in the dump that is RFK Stadium, attendance was 2,731,993 (higher than the Orioles 2,624,740). Baseball was dead in Montreal.

The way Montreal can "show Mr. Manfred our love for the sport," is to spend almost a billion Canadian dollars on a new stadium. Olympic Stadium couldn't cut it ten years ago. They are not close to ready for prime time let alone a place Oakland or Tampa could use to extort a new stadium deal for their cities.

I changed the thread title because, as my father used to say, "it's nice to want things, doesn't mean you're going to get them."

[backwardsk]

Manfred understands that now that DC is out of the picture, he needs another city that he can use to threaten local governments with in order to squeeze them for taxpayer-funded stadiums and upgrades. If there are no obvious choices to be had, might as well get as many options on the table as you can.

Yep. That's why you haven't seen an NFL team in LA for the past 20 years.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[paulcoates]

If you have ever been to a Montreal Expos game, you would know that this town does not deserve a team. The stadium was not kept up and was without a doubt the worst stadium in baseball. Whether that is the city's responsibility or the teams, I dont know. But it takes two in this case as both will need to be involved on and ongoing basis to make any kind of bid work. The day I went to a game there was 2 for $1 hot dog night. I kid you not when I tell you there were more people in line for hot dogs than were watching the game. Disgraceful

[PeteU]

Yep. That's why you haven't seen an NFL team in LA for the past 20 years.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

At least for the NFL, LA is LA, the second largest market in the country. Yes, there were attendance problems for both the Raiders and Rams towards the end of their tenure there, but still there's some considerable history in LA coupled with the enormous market.

Baseball doesn't have an LA option at the moment. DC and Tampa Bay were baseball's LA option for years, but eventually those bluffs got called in. Montreal's the closest it has and even that is pretty pathetic, given that most people will remember Montreal for a crumbling stadium and paltry crowds and little else.

For there to be a serious relocation market threat, whatever city has to have both a) a sizeably large temporary venue (MLB's not going to want to see a team playing in an 8,000 minor league stadium for more than a series or two), and b) a new stadium financing plan on the table. Montreal might have the first part, but currently it doesn't have the second part.

[Rene88]

Baseball needs to expand by two teams. 32 teams would be structured as:

16 teams per league

2 conferences of 8 teams per league

2 divisions of 4 teams per conference

This would make scheduling so much better. Each team would play:

14 games with each of the other 3 teams in its division = 42

10 games with each of the four teams in the other division in its conference = 40

8 games with each of the 8 teams in the other conference = 64

4 games vs. each of 4 inter-league opponents = 16

That adds up to 162 games, with 82 of them in the same conference, fewer games against division opponents, and fewer interleague games.

It also could add more playoff games, with each playoff team a division champion; an equal number of playoff spot without the need for wildcards.

4 best of 7 conference championship series

2 best of 7 league championship series

1 best of 7 world series

Always enjoy your posts. Appreciate the effort and analysis on that one.

[Rene88]

If you have ever been to a Montreal Expos game, you would know that this team does not deserve a team. The stadium was not kept up and was without a doubt the worst stadium in baseball. Whether that is the city's responsibility or the teams, I dont know. But it takes two in this case as both will need to be involved on and ongoing basis to make any kind of bid work. The day I went to a game there was 2 for $1 hot dog night. I kid you not when I tell you there were more people in line for hot dogs than were watching the game. Disgraceful

Don't hold back, how do you really feel:)?

Expansion talk-my guess are the following: Mexico & Midwest (Las Vegas or Utah?)