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Originally Posted by Calgarian
Probably something to do with equalization payments and federal transfers, but I won't get into that here as that a discussion for it's own thread...
So is Montreal actively seeking an MLB franchise again? Would be nice to have more than one Canadian team again, though I don't even follow Baseball...
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Hard to say - there was a pretty serious push from Bronfman and Devimco in 2019 for the Tampa Bay/Montreal split cities plan. There were designs produced for a stadium in Bassin Peel, but the MLB killed the plan a few years later and there has been no publicly known activity on the file since. Expansion remains up in the air as the Rays and A’s (moreso the Rays) are still being sorted out. I’d imagine that they are likely just sitting on the plans now and trying to slowly garner corporate interest/support.
Worth noting that Stade Olympique, after the renovations, will be in a fixed rectangular configuration moving forward that will not allow baseball anymore. Sending a team back there was a non-starter to begin with, but it is impossible now. It would have to be a brand new purpose-built stadium.
My dream for Montreal is that we see Bell utilize its sports assets (owning TSN and a portion of the Canadiens) and start a similar model to MLSE in Montreal with the Bronfmans and Molsons. All three could pool resources to secure the MLB and NBA. However, I don’t consider this likely to happen at all.