With the Baseball Legion of America already proving it believes baseball can thrive outside the United States by adding the Mexico City Mauraders as the second team outside the United States along with Toronto Blue Jays, they have announced they will return another professional team to Canada as they welcome the
Montreal Expos back in baseball.
Commissioner Derek Bobola said the decision to bring a team back to Montreal was "very difficult, yet pretty simple." When asked to elaborate he said "When your trying to decide which City deserves a BLOA franchise, there are so many options that its really hard to say you made the wrong decision. If we decided to bring another team to the United States, I don't think we could of went wrong but then when were were approached to branch out to not just the United States but to the rest of North America, the opportunities became much more difficult to narrow it down to just two teams.
If I had it my way, we would be expanding 6 teams to cover the areas across the US, Canada and Mexico that I think are VERY deserving of teams but in the end we had to select only two and I'm confident we did a great job."
Bobola also said the decision to give Montreal a franchise is to prove that there are second chances in life. The Winnipeg Jets of the NHL proved a team can come home again. With new ownership in place, its believed Montreal has established themselves as a team that can support a payroll in the $60-million dollar range. Helping the cause is
it's a well known fact that Montreal remains the largest North American city without any professional baseball in its boundaries.
Montreal is a town with no shortage of things to spend time and money on, and its casual sports fans take the word casual to a whole new level. Will this be a benefit or a hindrance to a professional team?
The Conference Board of Canada released a report stating that "Montreal has the necessary market conditions in place today to be the home of a Professional Baseball franchise" With the Canadian dollar soaring in 2011 (even hitting a modern all-time high), this is not a surprise. Montreal has certainly grown over the past several years and the business climate is a lot more stable now than it was when Montreal last had a team before moving to D.C.
A few other factors in bringing the Expos back to Montreal are but not limited to:
Population: Montreal is a big city with a very large population, almost 4 million people. According to a Conference Board of Canada report prepared in 2011, one of the “market pillars” needed to support a Major League Baseball team is a population of at least 2.5 million people.
Passionate Fan Base: Montreal is known the world over for its multitude of festivals that are so well-attended each and every year. Also their other professional sports teams are well received as the Alouettes of the CFL and Montrealers of the MLS have many passionate fans.
Nostalgia: I always liked following the Expos and enjoyed their logo, uniforms and many of the former players who got their start in an Expo uniform or farm system. Also I think it makes a great story to see a franchise resurrected.
History There were MANY great players who played in Montreal or got their start. Andre Dawson, Gary Carter, Tim Raines, Vladimir Guerrero, Dennis Martinez, Pedro Martinez, Jeff Readon, Marquis Grissom to name a few.