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OT: MLB Thread

Krustchev said:
There will never be a publicly funded stadium in Quebec for a baseball team that is not yet playing there so the threat of moving to Montreal is illusory. Any American would laugh if you threatened to move your ball club to Montreal. And rightly so.
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You're mixing up my arguments.

1. I said lack of government support in Quebec makes the odds insurmountable.

2. Government support is common in the USA, even in markets that do not have a current team.
 
WeHaveMoreCupsThanYou said:
When it comes to broadcasting, MLB is very NFL-like. They control a lot of the broadcast content centrally and since all teams share in the TV money it behooves MLB to ensure that all it's member clubs can generate revenues. In a country of 30+ million there should be plenty of money to go around between two teams. There's no need for the Jays and Expos to try and cut each other's throats except on the field.
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Not true.... the reason the Yankees are able to spend like the Yankees is their local tv deal and ownership in YES network.
The reason the Dodgers and angels have started spending like crazy the last few years is new mega local tv deals.
Same with the Rangers.

Local TV is huge and its not a common pool. There is some revenue sharing but not near NFL-like.
 
BKerr said:
Not true.... the reason the Yankees are able to spend like the Yankees is their local tv deal and ownership in YES network.
The reason the Dodgers and angels have started spending like crazy the last few years is new mega local tv deals.
Same with the Rangers.

Local TV is huge and its not a common pool. There is some revenue sharing but not near NFL-like.
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But I'm not talking about local rights. I'm talking about national Canadian rights. There is no reason why the Jays and Expos need to divide the country up at the Ontario-Quebec border. Both team's games should be available across the country. If the Jays want to apply a blackout in the golden horseshoe and the Expos want to black out the Jays in southwestern Quebec, fine, although I don't think they should do it for ALL the other team's games. And outside those two areas viewers should be able to watch both. How can the Jays justify blacking out Expos games in Vancouver or the Expos blacking out Jays games in Halifax? It makes no damn sense.

Besides, even if you live in Toronto all you'd need is an RDS subscription and you've beaten the blackout, just like they do with the Habs.
 
CH1 said:
Nobody will foot the bill for a nice stade. I agree. But if (giant size if) the government handed out dough to rich dudes they way they do in the USA to build stadiums, somebody would bite at owning a team.
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You mean the Socialist Republic of Canada won't pay for a stadium but the Capitalist United States of American will?

Commies.
 
worm said:
You mean the Socialist Republic of Canada won't pay for a stadium but the Capitalist United States of American will?

Commies.
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The US has no problem giving welfare and handouts to the rich. It's when it's for the poor that all hel breaks loose
 
WeHaveMoreCupsThanYou said:
But I'm not talking about local rights. I'm talking about national Canadian rights. There is no reason why the Jays and Expos need to divide the country up at the Ontario-Quebec border. Both team's games should be available across the country. If the Jays want to apply a blackout in the golden horseshoe and the Expos want to black out the Jays in southwestern Quebec, fine, although I don't think they should do it for ALL the other team's games. And outside those two areas viewers should be able to watch both. How can the Jays justify blacking out Expos games in Vancouver or the Expos blacking out Jays games in Halifax? It makes no damn sense.

Besides, even if you live in Toronto all you'd need is an RDS subscription and you've beaten the blackout, just like they do with the Habs.
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Just like the NHL, the national broadcast rights will only be for a limited number of games... not the entire season.

Even back in the day TSN used to nationally broadcast 20-30 Expos games a year.
 
BKerr said:
Just like the NHL, the national broadcast rights will only be for a limited number of games... not the entire season.

Even back in the day TSN used to nationally broadcast 20-30 Expos games a year.
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TSN used to broadcast an equal number of Expos and Jays games, about 40 for each team. Then as time passed they kept increasing the number of Jays games and decreasing the number of Expos games until the Expos virtually disappeared from the network.
 
Was in the car to day and turned on the TEAM1040 and they had a guest on talking about the Expos venture. Quickly I could tell it was a former player and honestly I figured it was a white guy like Bill Lee or Larry Walker but it turned out to be Warren Cromartie. I should have figured that but in my stereotype world... it didn't sound like an african-american.

Anyhow he is quite well spoken and very passionate about the Expos re-birth. He knows it is a long shot but he is committed to seeing this through and knows lots has yet to be done.

He made me laugh when he said he wants absolutely no one from the previous ownership group involved in a future Expos team.

What I liked is that he isn't a dreamer about this idea. He has a detailed plan and knows the checks and balances that have to be done before this can stake another step. He made it sound like has had talk and commitments made with private donors along with the usual Montreal Board of Trade and City Council support. We all know the bigger issue will be the mega investor but at least he seems to be building a foundation to work off.

He said things have gone faster than he expected and that the Expos merchandise is still selling in the top 10 of all MLB teams currently. Not sure how that is possible so maybe I mis-heard him but he said the merchandise is top 10 something regarding all the MLB teams. Amazing.
 
Ya, top 10 from all the MLB teams? That doesn't sound right, I couldn't imagine that would even be possible, not even the slightest bit. I think they think they can find some rich owner, and that the government is down for funding a ballpark and they will win and everyone will be happy.

A 36,000 stadium with a 75m budget will likely not even get you anywhere near a .500 team. I know it goes deeper than just a w/l record, but, the only way it will work out is if they create an exciting and winning team. Otherwise it's a failed project before it even begins.
 
Lotusland said:
Was in the car to day and turned on the TEAM1040 and they had a guest on talking about the Expos venture. Quickly I could tell it was a former player and honestly I figured it was a white guy like Bill Lee or Larry Walker but it turned out to be Warren Cromartie. I should have figured that but in my stereotype world... it didn't sound like an african-american.

Anyhow he is quite well spoken and very passionate about the Expos re-birth. He knows it is a long shot but he is committed to seeing this through and knows lots has yet to be done.

He made me laugh when he said he wants absolutely no one from the previous ownership group involved in a future Expos team.

What I liked is that he isn't a dreamer about this idea. He has a detailed plan and knows the checks and balances that have to be done before this can stake another step. He made it sound like has had talk and commitments made with private donors along with the usual Montreal Board of Trade and City Council support. We all know the bigger issue will be the mega investor but at least he seems to be building a foundation to work off.

He said things have gone faster than he expected and that the Expos merchandise is still selling in the top 10 of all MLB teams currently. Not sure how that is possible so maybe I mis-heard him but he said the merchandise is top 10 something regarding all the MLB teams. Amazing.
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You sound like Joe Biden when he said that Obama was well-spoken for a black person. Yes, I know that's not how you meant it.
 
xposbrad said:
Ya, top 10 from all the MLB teams? That doesn't sound right, I couldn't imagine that would even be possible, not even the slightest bit.
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I'll check later to see if there is a podcast of that interview however for now I was surfing the net and came across this Expos piece that was published yesterday.

Not sure if this is a fluff piece by someone on the Expos bandwagon but it has an optimistic view on the Expos ability to return and be successful. A good read for those interested in the Expos and some nice pics of the past.


http://www.therichest.com/sports/baseball-sports/is-an-mlb-team-feasible-in-montreal/


The study released polls saying that 69% of Quebecers would be interested in baseball returning and would buy tickets. It’s easy to say that of course, without having to hand over any money. This portion of the study is very hard to gauge. While attendance dipped dramatically in the Expos’ final years, there was a time when they were packing the Olympic Stadium night after night. Crowds of 40,000 were common in 1994, as the Expos held the best record in baseball before a players strike cancelled the season. In the early 1980′s, they drew totals of over 2 million fans per season, far higher than the league average at the time.

A source of revenue the Expos didn’t have was a major television deal. TV deals are where teams make their highest profit. Today, revenue sharing exists in the MLB and every team has a television deal. With the emergence of all-sports channels which are hungry for programming, 162 regular season games would be an ideal investment. RDS and TVA Sports are two possibilities in the francophone sector and the logical provider on the English side would be TSN. This leads to the important question of a possible owner if Montreal were to receive a baseball team.

Bell Media lost their NHL rights to Rogers who paid $5.2 billion for the next 12 years. Stripped of hockey, that’s sure to leave some holes in Bell’s programming lineup. Would it not make sense to land the rights to a baseball team? Rogers has all rights to the Blue Jays, so what if Bell were to respond with a revived Expos team?

That $5.2 billion could pay for a new team, a new stadium and Bell wouldn’t even have to pay for broadcasting rights. It’s a logical move for Bell. With the direction professional sports has gone, a multimedia company is an ideal owner. In this circumstance, the two largest multimedia companies in Canada would have a healthy competition trying to win over the country with their own baseball teams.
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While there are several large entities capable of owning a baseball team here, including Molson, Cirque de Soleil or Saputo, Bell seems to be the most realistic option. They have the pockets to bring a baseball team through re-location or expansion and could foot the bill for a stadium. Doesn’t Parc Bell just roll off the tongue?
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Expos merchandise is still a hot-seller. According to New Era officials, manufacturers of MLB caps, the Expos hat is the third-highest seller in Canada, behind the Blue Jays and the New York Yankees.
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xposbrad said:
Ya, top 10 from all the MLB teams? That doesn't sound right, I couldn't imagine that would even be possible, not even the slightest bit. I think they think they can find some rich owner, and that the government is down for funding a ballpark and they will win and everyone will be happy.

A 36,000 stadium with a 75m budget will likely not even get you anywhere near a .500 team. I know it goes deeper than just a w/l record, but, the only way it will work out is if they create an exciting and winning team. Otherwise it's a failed project before it even begins.
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They just have to hire Billy Beane. I'm not into advanced stats in hockey but you can't argue with the "moneyball" approach as applied by Beane. It's about squeezing every last drop of juice from the orange; making the most with the dollars you have to spend. If the Tampa Bay Rays with all their financial disadvantages can make the post-season 2 years out of three while playing in the same division as the Yankees and Red Sox that's proof enough for me that it is possible to put a winning product on the field without spending a half billion dollars on players.

The days of breweries owning all the sports properties is over. It's all about the telecomms now. Rogers snagged all the Canadian NHL TV rights and a week later TSN snagged all the Canadian NFL TV rights. Rogers owns the Jays so Bell will naturally need to counter by reviving the Expos. Tit for tat.
 
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