It has been about eleven long, painful years since MLB’s Expos left Montreal to relocate to Washington, DC to become the Nationals. At the end of the month, Montreal’s mayor Denis Coderre will meet with new commissioner Rob Manfred to discuss a team in the city once again.
In 2004, after the Expos were in heavy financial trouble, they were bought out by the MLB corporate and did not even play all of their home games in Montreal. They played three quarters of their games there and the other quarter in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Throughout their final five years in Montreal, the Expos averaged fewer than 10,000 fans a game. That, plus the financial stresses of having a team there prompted the MLB to step in and forcibly move the Expos to Washington to become the Nationals. This led to outcry amongst Quebecers who liked the team.
The past few years the other Canadian team, the Toronto Blue Jays, have hosted exhibition games with the New York Mets and the Cincinnati Reds. The series with the Mets, over the two games, attracted 100,000 people, and the series with the Reds attracted an upwards of 95,000-99,000. That proves that Montreal wants a team back. Fans who went to those games wore Expos jerseys, shirts, and hats. They held signs saying, “WE WANT OUR TEAM BACK” or “BRING BACK THE ‘SPOS”
Baseball super-agent Scott Boras stated, “I do wonder that, I’ve always thought Montreal was a tremendous major league city and I think it’s a town that if you put a ballpark there and particularly with the communications broadcasting rights and such that are there, that it would be a tremendous success and a very valued point for baseball.”
Personally, I loved the Expos while they were still a team. I remember the first full baseball game I watched was a Cubs-Expos game on TV in their last year of their existence. My interest in the defunct baseball franchise was rekindled when I found my father’s old Expos jersey, and I purchased my own Expos hat online. I sincerely hope that the MLB comes to its senses and awards Montreal a team again.