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OT: MLB Thread

Only way I could think of, is if they tore the entire area down to the Children's hospital (since it's moving anyway) - but would be a huge project causing a re-routing of traffic from lower Westmount into downtown. Not sure it's viable.

Griffintown (though missing a metro station), is right down from downtown, off the Bonaventure autoroute, access to bridges for South shore & just down from the old port.


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Love the site of the Big Owe off in the distance. I wonder if that will still be around by the time another team is going to discuss moving.
 
The caveat with hoping that Bell invests is that they are already partnering with the CFL for the summer and fall. I'm not sure they are going to want to divide that audience. On per game basis the CFL outdraws the Blue Jays. Why do anything to change that formula.
 
The caveat with hoping that Bell invests is that they are already partnering with the CFL for the summer and fall. I'm not sure they are going to want to divide that audience. On per game basis the CFL outdraws the Blue Jays. Why do anything to change that formula.

Content. 162 game season gives you over 500 hours of live content per team.
 
Content. 162 game season gives you over 500 hours of live content per team.

True. But at half a billion dollars for the team that's a huge down payment on live programming. Couldn't Bell get a similar amount of prime time eyeballs with fewer dollars by propping up the CFL? It's not as though the CFL would say no to having someone fund the Argos or a team in Quebec City.
 
I don't think you can compare MLB to the CFL. What TSN has going with the CFL right now is working and there's no reason to fiddle with it. But football is a once-a-week event whereas baseball is pretty much an everyday event. You have fewer holes in your summer programming schedule when you can show baseball.
 
True. But at half a billion dollars for the team that's a huge down payment on live programming. Couldn't Bell get a similar amount of prime time eyeballs with fewer dollars by propping up the CFL? It's not as though the CFL would say no to having someone fund the Argos or a team in Quebec City.

CFL is not big time revenue. They can barely afford to pay their players a decent wage.
 
David William Naylor ‏
"I don't think there's any doubt that MLB wants to return to Montreal .. in time we're gonna see that." -- ESPN's Jim Bowden on #TSNDrive
 
Marc Griffin ‏
Not only is MLB exploring #Montreal, so is the @NBA. They've had 4 consecutive years of HUGE pre-season games here. Only city in the world.

@ehmarchand @BWildeCTV @NBA Sure, or #OuiTheNorth
 
Vladimir Guerrero
Montreal, thanks for the memories, thanks for this night, thanks for the love and support. Thanks my God.
 
Brandon Phillips ‏
Hello #OlympicStadium... I finally made it here even tho I'm not wearing that blue, red, & white!!! #Montreal #Expos

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CFL is not big time revenue. They can barely afford to pay their players a decent wage.

But for Bell the CFL still generates better ratings than the Blue Jays do for Rogers on a per game basis.

True the CFL is not as "major league" as the NFL or MLB but it is ingrained enough the Canadian TV landscape that Bell can rely on it as anchor programming from July through October. All that an MLB team would offer is additional content in April through June which involves competing with the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see an MLB team in Montreal, but I don't know if the Spring Time/Summer Tuesday and Wednesday Night programming hole is enough to make that $500 million investment on a Montreal Team. They could plug some of those programming holes with a $20 to 30 million dollar investment in some less stable/established CFL markets and get a comparable return on ratings.
 
As soon as Bell gets involved and shows plans for a new stadium... Expos will be alive again. Summer in Montreal has never been the same.
 
The more I think about it, the more I think Quebecor would be a better fit for Expos ownership than Bell. TVA sports doesn't have as much summer programming as Bell does. Quebecor would need an additional anchor program to get people outside of Quebec to subscribe since their current NHL content is available in English. Lastly since the NHL team which Quebecor wanted for Quebec City might not happen it's not a stretch to imagine that MLB could be a back up assuming they were comfortable with pro sports ownership.
 
Why do you think that Quebec City might not get an NHL team? Their new arena is almost finished and they didn't build it based on the hope that a team would return. There's an understanding there. Quebecor's name will be on the arena and TVA has broadcast rights to hockey to the next 11 years. The only question remaining is will it be an expansion team or a relocated team? But Quebec is getting an NHL hockey team.

Ultimately I don't care but given a choice I'd rather have a new baseball team owned by Bell rather than Quebecor. I don't want the new Expos to be a provincial team but a national one. I don't see that happening under Quebecor's stewardship.
 
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