Expos will never be a national team. This country is all Blue Jay now.
Quebec will not get an expansion team UNTIL the conferences are balanced.
Quebec will not get an expansion team UNTIL the conferences are balanced.
OT: MLB Thread
- Thread starter XPOFAN
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Habs53
Active member
I hardly know any Blue jay fans. Where do you get this nonsense from?
WeHaveMoreCupsThanYou
I will get banned again soon, worry not.
I disagree. Thanks to 40 years of separatist politics, there are more ex-Montrealers across the country than ex-Torontonians. The Jays were only popular in other regions of the country when they were winning championships and people got on the bandwagon. It also helped that they were pretty much the only team on TV. But today you can see any game you want so people don't have to limit themselves to the Jays. When the Mariners were winning they had strong support in BC and ESPN's Dan Schulman has picked the M's to win it all this season. If Seattle goes to the post-season baseball fans in BC will forget they ever knew who the Blue Jays were, bandwagoners that they are.
And then you've got people like myself who simply shun any and every franchise with the name "Toronto" attached to it. There's plenty of us out here. I see it in hockey; Canucks fans who are ambivalent about the Habs but who hate the Leafs with a fanatic passion. Maybe it's because HNIC makes the Canucks play at 4pm local time when the Leafs come to town just to accommodate the Ontario TV market while the Habs play at whatever time is convenient for the home team. But for whatever reason, people just don't hate Montreal the way they do Toronto. If you give people a real choice the Expos will erode the Jays' fanbase outside of Southern Ontario. Everyone loves an underdog.
As for the Nords, eventually the conferences will be balanced and they'll get a team. It's a "when", not an "if".
Blue Jays will not give up tv rights in their natural region. They don't want another team, they voted to contract the Expires.
There are nostalgic types like you who harken back to yesteryear of pathetic failure after failure and will pull out Carter jerseys, but more are like me who moved on to other teams.
There are nostalgic types like you who harken back to yesteryear of pathetic failure after failure and will pull out Carter jerseys, but more are like me who moved on to other teams.
XPOFAN
New member
The voices in his head
CH1
The Artist Formerly Known as chiggins.
My baseball love died with the 'Spos and as much as I'd jump for the heavens if there was a rebirth, I'm not really swayed by the strong attendance numbers this weekend. Montreal has always been an event driven kind of town - F1, JazzFest, Just for Laughs, etc and while Cro has put on an incredible event a few years running, I have my doubts about the town's hunger to watch a regular Monday night game against Milwaukee.
Sal_Butera
Well-known member
Yup - for all the praise Toronna's been getting in these parts re: their baseball support, the Blow Jays were middle of the pack (#17 overall this past season) in attendance, a tad shy of 30,000. Not sure 20,000 Montrealers will come out on a nightly basis over an 81-game home schedule.
The problem as always, there are as good baseball fans in Mtl as anywhere else, just not enough of them.
WeHaveMoreCupsThanYou
I will get banned again soon, worry not.
The Jays won't have a choice. They only have national exclusivity now because there are no other Canadian teams. The deal they made with the Expos 30-odd years ago was null and void the minute that franchise moved to DC. A new team in Montreal is going to demand and get the same reach that the Jays demanded and got when they entered the bigs in 1977. Bell is going to own them in order to compete with Rogers and the Jays.
And while former Expos fans may still follow the sport and even take a rooting interest in other teams most of them I'd wager are just waiting for an excuse to "come home" so to speak. I was happy when the Red Sox finally beat the Yankees and won the World Series. I was a big Bosox fan back in the Yaz era. But while I like them I don't love the Red Sox. I like the Mariners. I rooted for them when they were a contender. But I don't love them either. These other clubs don't engage me in the same way the Expos did (or would, if they were to come back) When the Expos left I stopped watching or following the sport on any sort of day to day basis. And even today, while I enjoy going to the odd game I still don't watch it much. I don't immerse myself in it the way I used to.
Same thing happened when the Alouettes died. I went from a hard-core CFL fan to a less-than-casual fan. I might go to a game if someone shot me a pair of free tickets, but I rarely watched on TV and was disengaged during the decade or so when there was no team in Montreal. When the Als came back, I started watching the CFL on a regular basis again.
deandebean
Active member
WeHaveMoreCupsThanYou
I will get banned again soon, worry not.
I don't think for one minute that a reborn Expos team would draw 45K per game. But I also don't believe that a reborn Expos team, playing in a downtown baseball-only stadium, would only draw 5000 or so like they did in their latter years at the Big O. I think the season ticket base would be a lot stronger, for one thing, and that a downtown park would attract far more day of game walk-up ticket sales than they ever could in the East end. We should never forget that the surrounding neighbourhood by the Olympic Stadium is one of the poorest postal codes on the Island of Montreal and is populated almost completely by French and/or third world immigrants. There aren't a lot of potential baseball fans (or even people with any kind of disposable income) living or working within walking distance of the Big O. Add to this the fact that baseball fans in other parts of the city don't want to travel that far and it's little wonder the team had trouble selling tickets.
But downtown that stuff won't be an issue. The surrounding neighbourhood will be gentrified, affluent and once the resto-bars open up it will have a definite game day vibe that the Expos could never have at either of their previous ballparks.
Problem is Wehave, no one with $$$ is offering to build said Stade
Dr.Phibes
Active member
I was/am a huge Expo fan. I have no illusions about a return any time soon. I will say that I am enjoying, thoroughly, your constant pissing on anything positive about the possible return/rebirth of the Expos. It only serves to prove the point that you are STILL a huge fan. Come on...the truth will set you free my friend.