Expos de Montréal

[MtlMan]

Ils ont peut-être raison, qui sait? Mais s'il fallait arrêter de rêver à quoi que ce soit pour chaque nay-sayer et sceptique, on en serait encore à râcler nos lopins de terre avec une fourche en bois.

[Habsfan]

Drôle de timing pour sortir cette conclusion... D'ou l'expression " to rain on someone's parade".

 

Pas vraiment. Comme le gars l'a mentionné dans son article, il croit au projet, sauf qu'il dit que ce ne sera pas pour demain matin. Qu'est ce qu'il y a de mal la dedans? Le gars dit la véritée. Les Expos, si jamais ils reviennent, ce ne sera pas avant 8-10 ans.

 

Il est réaliste, c'est tout!

Modifié 2 avril 2014 par Habsfan

[catpuke11]

J'ai dit que c'était mal et qu'il ne disait pas la vérité ? Ok!

[eastender85]

NEW YORK — The Subway Series is over for another year, ending Thursday night with a 1-0 Yankees win over the Mets at a less-than-full Citi Field. Of all the signs that the intracity matchup has lost some of its luster, the chunks of empty seats in the upper deck and center field bleachers were the strongest yet.

 

Try to dress it up however you want. The weather was suboptimal Thursday. The teams aren't as good as they were at the inception of interleague play. The finale of the four-game, split-stadium set featured two pitchers, Jacob deGrom and Chase Whitley, making their major league debuts. Tickets are too expensive.

 

Whatever.

 

New York is a metropolitan area of more than 22 million people, and a game between its two teams sold 40,133 tickets, one night after an attendance figure of 35,577 that was lower than the draw for a Friday game in April against the Reds.

 

Having empty seats for the Subway Series was unthinkable not too long ago, but it's nothing compared to Chicago, where both Cubs-White Sox games on the South Side earlier this month failed to draw even 30,000 people. The games at Wrigley Field also were not sold out.

 

"It's definitely died off a little bit from what it was in the early 2000s and late '90s, mid 2000s, even," said Yankees relief pitcher Matt Thornton, who spent parts of eight seasons with the White Sox. "But it's still fun."

 

It might be fun, but the Houston Astros' move to the American League left Major League Baseball with 15 teams in the American League and 15 teams in the National League, making daily interleague play a necessity. Where intracity series used to be the crown jewels of the midseason carnival of Junior Circuit vs. Senior Circuit matchups, now they are just part of the schedule.

 

"I think a lot of people like that," said Mets outfielder and former Yankee Bobby Abreu. "Before, you had to wait for June and July to see the interleague, and now you can see it even on opening day. I think people get more interested by that."

 

The empty seats belie Abreu's claim. Once a special break in a monotonous summer, interleague play now is commonplace, from opening day to the season finale. The solution should be obvious.

 

MLB has not had expansion since Arizona and Tampa Bay came into the fold in 1998, and with the growth of the global talent pool since then and the headaches caused by having two leagues of three divisions with five teams each, the time is right for the move from 30 teams to 32.

 

There are two obvious cities for expansion teams: Montreal and Las Vegas. Both have stadia that have hosted regular-season games in the past, and the cases for both are rather plain. The Expos may be more popular now than they were when they existed, and Stade Olympique was jumping for two Mets-Blue Jays exhibition games in March. By getting to Las Vegas before the other major professional sports, baseball could gain a foothold in a burgeoning market while acting with confidence rather than a century of fear with regard to gambling.

 

 

 

Whether or not those are the two cities that get expansion teams, MLB growing to 32 teams would allow not only a restoration of interleague play to its intended effect, but also a better playoff system.

 

With 32 teams, it would be possible to go to four divisions of eight teams each. The playoffs could then place a heavier emphasis on divisional rivalries, with the second- and third-place teams in each division squaring off in one-game wild card playoffs, then facing the division winners. This also would mean having 12 playoff teams instead of 10 — something that would keep more fans invested across the continent while maintaining baseball's place as the sport in which the playoffs are hardest to reach.

 

What would those divisions look like? If Subway Series games are going to be just another day on the schedule, maybe baseball is closer to being ready for the kind of geographic realignment that was talked about back in 1997. Aside from the designated hitter being in one league and not the other, and baseball's Krazy Glue adherence to tradition, what reason is there to have two leagues anyway?

 

"I think you have to have some separation and structure there for playoff purposes," Thornton said. "It would be interesting to see 30 teams, and you take the top eight to the playoffs no matter what, with everyone playing everyone the same amount throughout the year. But that kind of takes away from, say, the Boston-New York rivalry that's been around for so long. It's hard to take that away, playing them so many times."

 

With radical realignment, Red Sox-Yankees as a rivalry would be preserved, and all of the teams of the East Coast, Midwest, and West Coast would be grouped together the way that they are in basketball and hockey. The New York Rangers are just fine being rivals with two teams in their own market, plus Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington. Why wouldn't a division of the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Phillies, Orioles, Nationals, Blue Jays and Expos 2.0 work?

 

"The tradition of the game has been so stubborn to move in every aspect," Thornton said. "We're going in that direction now with replay and stuff like that, so you never know."

 

http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/story/2014-05-15/mlb-expansion-montreal-las-vegas-interleague-mets-yankees-series-interleague-play-cities

[eastender85]

A’s on the move to San Antonio or Montreal?

 

Oakland City Councilman Larry Reid says he doesn’t believe the A’s are bluffing in their threat to leave the city if they don’t get a 10-year lease extension at the Coliseum, and he pointed to a pair of possible destinations — Montreal and San Antonio, Texas.

 

Reid said that was the word he got from the Coliseum Authority negotiators who have been working for the past 14 months to try to reach an A’s lease extension.

 

“They have options,’’ Reid said.

 

Both cities would have issues. San Antonio has a domed stadium, the Alamodome, that is used mainly for football. It has hosted baseball exhibition games the past two years, but its right-field fence was a mere 280 feet from home plate, at least 50 feet closer than the standard ballpark.

 

Montreal used to have a Major League Baseball team, the Expos, who bolted for Washington, D.C., in 2004 — after the city refused to build a ballpark to replace Olympic Stadium, if that sounds familiar.

 

Montreal has “already demonstrated their support of a professional team,” Reid said.

 

A’s spokesman Ken Pries said he couldn’t confirm or deny whether the team was working up a Tex-Mex appetite or hankering for a home north of the border. He said the team was simply “sitting back and waiting to see what happens (with the Coliseum lease) and hoping for the best.’’

 

Reid was one of two city representatives on the Coliseum Authority who ignored a council directive last week and voted to approve the lease extension without further modification. Despite the authority’s 6-2 vote, the deal must still be ratified by both the City Council and Alameda County Board of Supervisors.

 

The supervisors appear ready to back the deal, but the City Council was still huddled behind closed doors late Monday trying to figure out its next move.

 

Council members have been at odds over whether to approve the latest agreement or push for tougher financial terms, including a share of advertising proceeds from the new, $10 million scoreboard the A’s agreed to install. They also are demanding the A’s stay at least 4 1/2 years before they can terminate their lease, and they want to make it easier to cancel the team’s lease should the Oakland Raiders commit to building a new football stadium at the Coliseum site.

 

The city’s muscle flexing last week prompted Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig to jump into the fray, authorizing the A’s to seek a new home outside Oakland immediately if the current terms of the agreement aren’t approved.

 

When asked if he thought the threat was real, county Board of Supervisors President Nate Miley said, “I’d put money on it.’’

 

The question is whether the Oakland City Council believes that.

 

http://blog.sfgate.com/matierandross/2014/07/07/as-on-the-move-to-san-antonio-or-montreal/

[Exposteve]

http://www.journaldemontreal.com/2014/07/07/javais-la-crainte-quon-perde-le-grand-prix

 

Michael Fortier nous a donné rendez-vous au 41e étage de la place Ville-Marie, dans les salons privés de la Banque Royale.

 

De là-haut, Montréal est grouillante, le Mont-Royal domine le paysage. L’ex-ministre conservateur aime tout particulièrement le point de vue sud. On y voit Habitat 67, les îles sous le pont Jacques Cartier, mais aussi le Silo no.5, rouillé et abandonné dans le Vieux-Port. «Il faut faire quelque chose avec ce quartier-là. Ça prend des initiatives et du leadership», lance-t-il.

 

Il n'est plus en politique depuis 2008, mais la politique ne l'a clairement pas quitté même s'il a renoncé à la dernière course à la mairie de Montréal. Du haut de sa tour de verre, il regarde la ville qu'il aurait pu diriger, ce qui ne l'empêche pas de commenter, de s'impliquer. D'ailleurs, il n'exclut pas un retour en politique active, même si on sent une légère hésitation.

 

«J’haïrais pas ça. Je pense que je veux continuer à servir. Mais je démontre qu’on peut aussi s'impliquer dans la société sans être en politique. Mais si je n’en faisais pas, je n’en ferais pas une maladie», dit-il avant d'avouer que plusieurs partis l'ont sollicité au fil des ans.

 

Car Fortier a choisi une autre voie, le sentier doré de la finance. Depuis 2010, c'est à la Banque Royale qu'il occupe son emploi du temps comme vice-président du conseil RBC marchés des capitaux. «Je fais surtout des fusions et des acquisitions. J’ai toujours aimé faire des "deals"», dit-il avec large sourire.

 

Amateur de baseball

 

Cette adrénaline, il l'obtient aussi en s'agitant dans plusieurs dossiers comme celui du retour (très hypothétique) des Expos à Montréal. Une idée qui fait briller les yeux du principal intéressé, amateur de baseball et ancien joueur junior.

 

S'il concède que ce serait difficile, il croit qu'un nouveau stade est une condition sine qua non pour un retour du baseball majeur. «Allez au Stade olympique, c’est plus compliqué. J'y suis allé deux fois, ce n’est pas un stade de baseball. [...] Il n’y en aura pas d’Expos sans un nouveau stade. Ce n’est pas compliqué, il n’y en aura pas», répète-t-il.

 

Mais l'homme est têtu. Il l'a déjà prouvé avec le Grand Prix de Montréal. Une opération de sauvetage à haute voltige qui l'a amené à négocier avec Bernie Ecclestone. Tout comme le grand argentier de la Formule 1, il avoue que la dernière négociation a été la plus ardue.

 

«Oui, ça été la plus difficile. Il y a des gens qui ont démissionné, qui ont quitté la mairie. Le gouvernement libéral a perdu une élection. Le nouveau gouvernement péquiste qui perd après. J'avais toujours de nouveaux intervenants. [...] Je ne pouvais jamais dire à Ecclestone, on a un "deal"», relate-t-il.

 

Ainsi, l'instabilité politique, surtout à Montréal avec les démissions de Gérald Tremblay, puis l'arrestation de Michael Applebaum, ont presque fait dérailler le processus.

 

«J’avais toujours la crainte qu’à Londres, on les perde. Il y avait des risques qu’on perde le Grand Prix. Qu'une autre ville arrive. [...] Mais Bernie Ecclestone ne m’a jamais menacé. Il a été patient, car il y a des moments, je l’appelais pour lui dire : je pense qu’on est proche d’un "deal"… Mais là, le maire changeait», dit-il.

[Habsfan]

without a billionaire owner, we can forget about the Expos ever coming back!

[LindbergMTL]

without a billionaire owner, we can forget about the Expos ever coming back!

 

Et le retour de Youppie est fort douteux!

[eastender85]

Le proprietaire des A's songe à Montreal donc on l'aurait le "bilionaire owner"

[Habsfan]

Le proprietaire des A's songe à Montreal donc on l'aurait le "bilionaire owner"

 

Oui, j'ai lu la nouvelle...mais tout ce que je veux dire c'est qu'on ne devrait pas s'exciter le poils des jambes...en tout cas, pas aujourd'hui. Nous avons BEAUCOUP de chemin à faire avant de revoir nos Expos!