Report: Rays owner discussed relocation to Montreal

[Raptors Realtor]

Would love to see an Expos re-birth...

http://www.tsn.ca/report-rays-owner-discussed-move-to-montreal-1.116444

With general manager Andrew Friedman and manager Joe Maddon having already left the organization, the future of the Tampa Bay Rays is suddenly not so bright for Florida fans.

A report in the New York Daily News, however, suggests that this could directly benefit baseball fans in Canada. The Daily News' Bill Madden reported that Rays owner Stuart Sternberg has been frustrated with new stadium efforts in Florida and that the market may not be able to support the team regardless. He cited sources stating that Sternberg has discussed a possible move to Montreal with some of his Wall Street associates.

Montreal, of course, remains hungry for an MLB franchise after the Expos were relocated to Washington in 2005. The move ended 36 years of MLB action in the city, finalizing the slow decay of the franchise that had seen the club play before sparse crowds and even sharing home dates with San Juan, Puerto Rico after the club had been purchased by the League.

The League has been reaching out to Montreal of late, though, with Olympic Stadium playing host to a pair of Toronto Blue Jays preseason games this past spring. The first contest between the Jays and the New York Mets drew a crowd of over 46,000.

[JN]

Lots of people unfairly crticized the fan base. I am not going to say it was great. But it was not bad either.

You can't fairly criticize a fan base which has
a) Terrible Stadium
b) Terrible Ownership / Management (beyond the GM level)

That being said if you can't settle a) above, Montreal would really not much be better then Tampa. I don't think many markets (other than the most elite) can really do well with terrible ownership and stadium.

The parallels between Montreal (early to mid 90's) and Tampa (last 5 years) are really close. Crappy stadium, low payroll, but good personnel management. Unfortunately that formula cannot work forever -- Tampa may be where Montreal was at in 1997, and its going to get ugly.

[north-of-border]

They were just talking about this on the radio the other day. Turns out the Rays have some sort of 13 year lease left and relocation would cost millions in a lawsuit against them. So no they are not coming to Montreal.... They have discussed building a new ball park though.

Also they mentioned how Montreal is THE destination on everyone's mind.... Similar to how Washington was hyped to get a team and at one point Tampa Bay. Both cities ended up good. So Montreal has a chance.

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[Lateral Quicks]

I'd be ecstatic with either a Montreal or Vancouver franchise. Build a cheap 35K capacity convertible open-air stadium with natural grass and baseball would flourish in either of those two cities IMO.

[suntzuballin]

With how the rays builds there teams that would be awesome if expos came back.

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[BlueJayReyes]

35 K grass field Stadium? sounds like the stadium that Toronto needs

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[gei]

Have people forgotten that it is COLD in Montreal? A 35k OPEN AIR stadium would be a complete disaster for the first 2 months of the season.

Unless they played the first 2 months worth of home games in Puerto Rico this would be an epic failure. The Skydome works perfectly in Toronto and hopefully Rogers ignores all the idiots calling for them to replace a perfectly functional and practical stadium with one where people would freeze their asses off.

[Santoki]

Have people forgotten that it is COLD in Montreal? A 35k OPEN AIR stadium would be a complete disaster for the first 2 months of the season.

Unless they played the first 2 months worth of home games in Puerto Rico this would be an epic failure. The Skydome works perfectly in Toronto and hopefully Rogers ignores all the idiots calling for them to replace a perfectly functional and practical stadium with one where people would freeze their asses off.

They seem to do just fine in Detroit, Chicago and Minnesota. Those places are as cold.

[Strav]

Have people forgotten that it is COLD in Montreal? A 35k OPEN AIR stadium would be a complete disaster for the first 2 months of the season.

Unless they played the first 2 months worth of home games in Puerto Rico this would be an epic failure. The Skydome works perfectly in Toronto and hopefully Rogers ignores all the idiots calling for them to replace a perfectly functional and practical stadium with one where people would freeze their asses off.

too young I guess to remember the Exhibition Stadium? A lousy stadium to be sure, but nothing beat the open air, even in April. Montreal is only a few degrees colder than Toronto on average, and opening day in an open air stadium probably wouldn't happen until the 2nd week in - yes there would probably be snow here for the first number of games, but so what.

Domes suck - right now you guys are stuck with a stadium whose roof doesn't open until well into the back end of May because the retractable roof very clearly doesn't work when the temp is not above single digits.

[baulderdash77]

Olympic Stadium is not really in any condition to host a team and it's too big in any rate. A 35,000 seat outdoor stadium is exactly what they do need.

Montreal would need a downtown stadium as well and there's not a lot of land that's undeveloped downtown to use.

It really would be a perfect market for Tampa Bay but there just aren't the conditions to be successful at this point.

[BlueJayReyes]

Have people forgotten that it is COLD in Montreal? A 35k OPEN AIR stadium would be a complete disaster for the first 2 months of the season.

Unless they played the first 2 months worth of home games in Puerto Rico this would be an epic failure. The Skydome works perfectly in Toronto and hopefully Rogers ignores all the idiots calling for them to replace a perfectly functional and practical stadium with one where people would freeze their asses off.

And it's not cold in the north east and midwest?

[Kinger95]

That would be awesome if the Rays sucked, traded most vets away and lowered payroll, tanked a few years and got some good young talent in drafts, attendance goes down during this time and they do relocate to Montreal. Then with a good young core and good prospects and some money to spend In FA be set up in Montreal wothout the fans having to endure multiple loosing seasons.

It would almost be like what the Nationals inherited when the expos went there

[Shimso]

I hope they're not just using Montreal as leverage to get a better deal with the government in Florida for a different stadium. McCown said on PTS that it might be like LA & the NFL or Seattle/LV with the NBA where they're just used as a way of getting certain people to cave in the fear of re-location.

[JN]

That would be awesome if the Rays sucked, traded most vets away and lowered payroll, tanked a few years and got some good young talent in drafts, attendance goes down during this time and they do relocate to Montreal. Then with a good young core and good prospects and some money to spend In FA be set up in Montreal wothout the fans having to endure multiple loosing seasons.

It would almost be like what the Nationals inherited when the expos went there

Actually the Expos left very little for Washington. Not much of a young core or great prospects. That 2004 team was not good.

Remember they traded the following for half a season of Bartolo Colon --- Cliff Lee, Grady Sizemore, and Brandon Phillips, when they went for the playoffs in 2002. They traded a package for Cliff Floyd. They traded Jason Bay away for a utliity infielder in Jason Collier.

And those bastard douchebag trolls Washingtin fans deserved it after years of trolling Expos message boards.

[Hoopstarr]

Have people forgotten that it is COLD in Montreal? A 35k OPEN AIR stadium would be a complete disaster for the first 2 months of the season.

Unless they played the first 2 months worth of home games in Puerto Rico this would be an epic failure. The Skydome works perfectly in Toronto and hopefully Rogers ignores all the idiots calling for them to replace a perfectly functional and practical stadium with one where people would freeze their asses off.

Never thought I'd see someone still defending Rogers using the Dome for the Jays. It's not baseball anymore if it's played on carpet-covered concrete, full stop.

[dagger]

St. Petersburg council vetoed the deal allowing the Rays to explore other Tampa area options. If it holds, this could well mean the Rays will sell to an owner willing to a) pay the indemnity to break the lease, and b) move the team. Jays fans should hope Bell buys the team and moves it to Montreal. Then, maybe, Rogers will feel compelled by their own hatred for the competition to spend a bit more money to get a real contender.

[MikeM]

St. Petersburg council vetoed the deal allowing the Rays to explore other Tampa area options. If it holds, this could well mean the Rays will sell to an owner willing to a) pay the indemnity to break the lease, and b) move the team. Jays fans should hope Bell buys the team and moves it to Montreal. Then, maybe, Rogers will feel compelled by their own hatred for the competition to spend a bit more money to get a real contender.

More likely that they'll collude to finish tied for last every year with a payroll around 60M.