OT: All-Purpose Expos Return Speculation Topic -- Part Deux

[Laurentide]

Told you a long time ago. Bronfman-Claridge is using this to suck up money for his billion dollar dev project. Let him rot. He’ll develop it anyway.

Exactly. He didn't buy up all that land to not develop it. They have 2 development plans, one with a stadium and one without. Whatever happens there will be overpriced condos for sale. Have no fear.

 

[Laurentide]

Doesn’t a new stadium in Tampa completely negate the whole idea for which Montreal was supposed to be in a two-city set up for a few years? I understood that it was two-city contraption toward a transition to a full time team in Montreal.

I don’t get how there could be a new stadium in Montreal if Tampa itself is pushing for a new stadium. Doesn’t add up.

No the "plan" is for both cities to both build new stadiums and share the Rays indefinitely.

I know, the idea sounds bonkers and it is and no one in their right mind actually believes it but that's what they're selling. It's as if they're trying to convince us that a new ballpark for a part-time team would cost less than one for a full-time team.

 

[Scriptor]

Exactly. He didn't buy up all that land to not develop it. They have 2 development plans, one with a stadium and one without. Whatever happens there will be overpriced condos for sale. Have no fear.

I'm already on the pre-sale list. Mine has a view inside the stadium, for when the concerts are in town. Well hear the music, anyhow, with the windows open. Might as well see the show...

 

[Scriptor]

No the "plan" is for both cities to both build new stadiums and share the Rays indefinitely.

I know, the idea sounds bonkers and it is and no one in their right mind actually believes it but that's what they're selling. It's as if they're trying to convince us that a new ballpark for a part-time team would cost less than one for a full-time team.

Actually, pretty confident that the TB stadium will never get off the ground. Looking at how long it took to actually move the Expos and all the strategems to allegedly help save Montreal (remember how we were a shared team, once, already?), TB refusing the stadium deal may well be part of the process to move the team to Montreal full time down the line.

They play in Tropicana Field for a few years and, then, when the lease is up, move it to Montreal full time...

Anything is possible. This, after all, is MLB. If something smells fishy (Marlin fishy), it usually is.

 

[Runner77]

It’s over, Rock. This just out now. A presser scheduled for 1 PM:

« The Rays’ proposed plan to split seasons in Montreal has been killed by Major League Baseball officials, the Tampa Bay Times has learned, creating even more uncertainty about the team’s long-term future in Tampa Bay. »

MLB kills Rays’ split-city plan with Montreal

 

[beowulf]

MLB bosses changed their minds. Will have to find another way to get some MLB in Montreal.

 

[expy]

It was over when Plante got re-elected.

 

[Runner77]

It was over when they reported that a new stadium was proposed in Tampa. That wasn’t supposed to happen. The whole idea had been to go with two cities on account of the current prohibitive lease that the Rays are bound to and then transition to Montreal on a full time basis.

 

[mikelvl]

Per national baseball reporter Bob Nightengale on twitter, Nashville and Montreal are the two top expansion franchises for MLB. For what that's worth.

 

[WickedPegJets]

It was over when Plante got re-elected.

This is a crying shame as I was looking forward to see the Blue Jays and the Expos in the same division.

 

[Runner77]

It was over when Plante got re-elected.

A bike path will now run through it.

 

[ThaDevilGirl]

It was over when Plante got re-elected.

Don't put that on Valérie Plante. Sharing a pro sports team long term was never going to be viable.

 

[salbutera]

 

[Michelangelo]

Per national baseball reporter Bob Nightengale on twitter, Nashville and Montreal are the two top expansion franchises for MLB. For what that's worth.

too bad there's no cash available for an expansion

unless if jeff bezos wants to help us out

 

[mikelvl]

too bad there's no cash available for an expansion

unless if jeff bezos wants to help us out

Then maybe Tampa fails and the relocation will be cheaper.

 

[Runner77]

Then maybe Tampa fails and the relocation will be cheaper.

This might actually work. Probably a ticking time bomb over there. Montreal coasts back into the picture with the steal.

Maybe not cheaper but hindrance-free thanks to desperation and no burdensome lease issue.

 

[Whitesnake]

I really have no idea how anybody thought that possible. Which players do you attract to play for a team with 2 homes? Guys with no families? And even this....Made no sense. Happy it's dead. Better no team that a half-team. Though....would be neat to have gotten TBay 'cause they draft very well.

 

[expy]

Don't put that on Valérie Plante. Sharing a pro sports team long term was never going to be viable.

I'm not wrong though?

 

[Laurentide]

MLB bosses changed their minds. Will have to find another way to get some MLB in Montreal.

They didn't change their minds. They were lying from the get-go. This two city plan was never happening. It was just a ploy to squeeze the taxpayers. As soon as MLB realized that civic leaders in both cities were refusing to take the bait, the jig was up. Bronfman is never getting his new ballpark paid for by the taxpayers. So if this really is a passion project for him like he keeps saying it is, let him pull his wallet out and spend some of that tax free Panama Papers money to build it himself.

 

[Laurentide]

It was over when Plante got re-elected.

Pretty much, yeah. The people that vote for her don't give a damn about pro sports in general and MLB in particular. Their only hope was to get the corrupt Coderre back into power. Then he'd have used "shenanigans" to get Bronfman the cash.

 

[ThaDevilGirl]

I'm not wrong though?

I don't deny that it would have been more work to bring a baseball team with her as a mayor. However I don't see how it is relevant if the project was already dead on arrival.

 

[MtlSportsFan]

TB Radio is saying things like "Ding Dong Montreal baseball is dead", pretty petty.

 

[Laurentide]

TB Radio is saying things like "Ding Dong Montreal baseball is dead", pretty petty.

It would have to first have been alive to begin with in order for it to be killed. This plan was never a real thing.

 

[coolasprICE]

Good. I want the Expos not the Rays.

 

[1909]

Good decision. This two-headed beast would had never worked.