Olympic Stadium was a building catastrophe from the get go. It was a contributing factor of the Expos leaving Montreal. Having said that, it would have been really cool if the North America opener were to have been opened in Montreal, with this past series with Toronto and the New York Mets. Instead it was just an exhibition. At least the Canadian park has hosted regular season MLB games unlike the Sydney Cricket Ground. Will another city other than Toronto ever host a regular season game again?
By Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Analyst/Website Owner): Follow @chuckbooth3024
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I must be out of my mind right?
Having the Toronto Blue Jays play in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver during a regular season – and re-brand the team to a national team in the MLB. But stop and think about this for a minute.
The club just drew almost 50K fans for both exhibition games in Quebec. This just reaffirmed my stance of last week. I admonished the MLB for not starting the season with this series in Montreal.
Having thought about it further this weekend, I came up with a new idea. Why not play some games in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver – and name the club the Canada Blue Jays?
Newly renovated BC Place Stadium, with $600 Million Dollars in upgrades, re-opened on Sept.30/2011 with and features a 100 by 85 retractable roof. The lights also illuminates different colors both inside and outside of the building. The stadium could be converted to meet MLB specifications. The Lower Mainland has 4 Million People to draw from and a growing baseball fanbase. In the last 20 years, Larry Walker, Ryan Dempster, Justin Morneau. Jeff Francis, Brett Lawrie and James Paxton have all come from the area. While it may not be able to sustain a full attendance over a full year, this place could net the Blue Jays some cash if they were to play some games.
On the surface, again people might say I am nuts.. but consider this.
Toronto has a tough time drawing attendance right now, and lets face it, they have been speedbagged by the Yankees and Red Sox 38 times a year for 15 years – knocking the competitive balance down a peg.
Expansion discussions have been running rampant in Montreal after this series. But lets all just look at some cons for expansion in Canada.
While it is nice the Blue Jays drew that many fans for a 2 game set, having a team in the city for 81 games is a different story.
Olympic Stadium while serviceable, is not a beacon of greatness to play in. During the last couple of seasons with the MLB, it was tough to draw well with the Expos.
There is no doubt the city was jobbed by Jeffrey Loria and sold a bill of goods by the league as well. if you want to read and hear more about that, click here.
But lets fast forward to 2014.
The stadium issues still presents itself prominently. There is no way a team could move to Montreal longterm – and play out of that facility.
Building in any new park in Montreal is also pipe dream. Between the park and a team relocation – or expansion, you are talking a Billion Dollars. A tough maneuver to privately finance, and no way to be done privately.
Even if you can cram those scenarios, there is no proof you could have sustainable success in the city.
Among the problems the team had when they left were Broadcast rights. With more than half of the population speaking Fench – and nearly half English, you need to have 2 main rights holders for TV.
The second problem is that the Jays have cornered the market for a decade, and are owned by the Rogers Media Group. Having 2 Eastern Time Standard Times would cut into ratings for one for sure
Another problem back a decade ago was the Canadian Dollar. Canada’s teams take in revenue in Canadian Dollars and pay out player salaries in U.S. Funds.
When Montreal left the MLB in 2005, the dollar was about .75/every US Dollar, and it has been near par for the last half-dozen years, before recently trending downwards again – hovering at about 90 cents right now.
Without any equalization payments given by the MLB, it would make it tough if this trend continued.
There is no doubt it would be cool for the Expos to return to the MLB, it just wouldn’t come via this route.
BC Place has been retrofitted with incredible renovations that feature spacious seats, a huge modern scoreboard, and a football sized retractable roof that beams down sun in the summer. BC Place used to hold exhibition games in the mid 90′s for Seattle, but haven’t come back since Edgar Martinez tore his knee up on the old Astroturf. The field surface has now been updated with “Field Turf.”
Vancouver, B.C. Canada probably has a better chance to land a team, because they have B.C. Place Stadium.
A renovated gem of a park, that saw $600 MIL in renovations in 2011, and I would rank as a top 15 venue if they were currently in the Majors right now.
But even though the population base has about 4 Million people in the Lower Mainland, baseball is just not the #1 sport in town.
Having said that, with the recent influx in players in the MLB from the area over the last 20 years, the popularity is increasing.
Much like Montreal, the intrigue would be great for a year or 2, however the sustainability would not be able to last the more time went on.
One advantage Vancouver would have over Montreal is that they are located on the West Coast. it is great because you feature doubleheaders nightly between Toronto and Vancouver for broadcasting TV/radio rights.
You could start the Toronto games at 7:07 PM EST, and then Vancouver could start at 10:10 PM EST.
Again, that article I wrote, talks about that here.
So that Vancouver and Montreal don’t work individually, and Toronto just can’t seem to gain enough steam own their own either. Why not amalgamate all 3 cities into the fold for one team?
My proposal for 81 home games.
Toronto – 41 games hosted.
Vancouver and Montreal Combined – 40 Games.
Vancouver 20 Games Hosted (BC Place Stadium)
(vs Seattle, Oakland, LA Angels, Texas, Houston, Kansas City – 6 series).
There are many fans in Seattle that would be able to drive the 3 Hours the I – 5 to watch the team play.
it is not like the West Coast teams draw as well in the Rogers Center.
Toronto 41 Games Hosted (Rogers Center)
22 versus combination NYY, BAL, TB, BOS,
13 versus the AL Central (Chicago, Minnesota, Cleveland, Detroit) and then 6 games in Interleague.
All of these teams remaining would be within earshot drive of Toronto. DET – 4 hour drive, CLE: 4.75 hours drive. CHI is 8 hours.
Minnesota is the only outlier – but that would be the same for Vancouver and Montreal anyway.
Montreal – 20 Games Hosted – (Olympic Stadium)
Tampa Bay (4 games), Baltimore (4 Games), NY Yankees 6 hours drive (4 games), Boston ( 5 hours 15 minutes away) (5 games) Natural Rivalry Philly 7 hours drive (3 games).
Those are 4 division rivalries and a natural rivalry.) It is not like the team wouldn’t be okay still playing their division rivalries for more than one series.
It is only a 5 hour drive from Toronto to Montreal.
Having the team as the Canada Blue Jays would unite the whole country to bond the entire nation.
I am thinking this new configuration could net the club over 3 Million in attendance yearly.
Nat Bailey looks like a mini-version of Wrigley Field and is currently the home field of the Toronto Blue Jays single A Affiliate (The Vancouver Canadians.)
Vancouver already has the single A Affiliate for the Blue Jays. As such, they have been building up the interest in the province for the Blue Jays for several years.
Compromise if not 20 games in Vancouver and Montreal – How about 6?
Montreal
6 games
vs TB – 3 games and BAL – 3 games.
Vancouver 6 games
vs SEA – 3 games and OAK – 3 games.
Not that any of these would ever happen. But the fact we can even entertain the thought is due to the weekend success in Montreal
Traveling baseball fans would love to go to all 3 parks. These venues have held championship matches in the Canadian Football League – and would be huge events to host regular season MLB games.
One can dream right?
The Blue Jays drew almost 100K fans in the two exhibition season games in Montreal. At the very least, why not host a few series in early April to help drive up attendance? Olympic Stadium could host a series versus the Rays/Orioles, or you could make it more accessible to the New York and Boston fan bases – by hosting series against the Red Sox and Yankees. Both cities are about a 7 hour drive from Montreal. The Blue Jays could really cash in on the whole country rallying behind one team. If they remain just in Toronto, this would be less achievable. However covering the three biggest cities in Canada, and hosting some games certainly would.
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More discussion about this topic available with MLB Reports Daily Podcaster Sully
It is The Sunday Request on The Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.
@sullybaseball how cool would the AL East be w/Sox,Yanks,Orioles,Jays, #MontrealExpos? Lots of rivalries there! #movetheraystoMontreal #MLB
— Mike (@Boston_Braves) March 30, 2014
That is an interesting idea for potential rivalries in the AL East.
And the bar for an improved baseball situation in Montreal is kind of LOW!
Tagged: AL East, AL West, american dollar, bc place stadium, boston red sox, brett lawrie, Canadian Dollar, Canadian Football League, cleveland indians, Grey Cup, houston astros, james paxton, jeff francis, jeffrey loria, justin morneau, kansas city royals, la angels, Larry Walker, mlb expansion, mlb relocation, montreal expos, olympic stadium, philadelphia phillies, rogers center, rogers media group, ryan dempster, seattle mariners, tampa bay rays, texas rangers, toronto blue jays, vancouver
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