Baseball is back, at least for some people.
For the city of Montreal, it hasn’t truly returned since the Expos left in 2004. With the success of the Toronto Blue Jays, it may finally be time for a return to baseball for another Canadian city.
Whether it’s bringing the Expos to Montreal or maybe even a new team to Ottawa, baseball is as popular as it’s ever been in Canada and it may be now time for a second team in the great white North.
Of course, this is only relevant as the Blue Jays embark on their 2016 season, finishing off their spring training in Montreal for the third straight year, this time against the Boston Red Sox.
Last year’s series in Montreal, the Jays brought in 96,545 fans between their two games against the Cincinnati Reds, topping the mark set the year before.
During this year’s series in Montreal generated even more fan fare with 106,102 fans taking in the games.
Although it’s only a two-game stretch, there’s no doubt the fandom still exists within Montrealers – despite remaining dormant since the Expos left the city for Washington, D.C., in 2004.
Last year, even before making the playoffs, the Blue Jays had one of their best seasons in over two decades.
Accompanying the success was a nation-wide Blue Jays fever. Thousands of fans gathered in bars and even more attended the games at the Rogers Centre.
Last year the Blue Jays averaged 34,505 fans per game, the most since the 1995 season when 39,257 fans passed through the gates per game, but still nowhere near the 49,000 plus between 1991 and 1995.
On television, the Jays’ success was even more profound once they made the playoffs.
Last year’s playoff run produced the top 10 ratings in Sportsnet’s 17-year existence with more than seven million tuning in during Jose Bautista’s home run in Game 5 of the American League Division Series. Had they beaten the Kansas City Royals in game 6, the Blue Jays would have had a real shot at eclipsing the Super Bowl for the most watched program in the country.
While the idea of bringing another team to Canada may be exciting, this idea rests heavily on Major League Baseball’s willingness to either expand the league to 31 teams or relocate one of its current franchises to a Canadian market.
However, in the Tampa Bay Rays, the League has at least one candidate for relocation.
Last year the Rays averaged just 15,322 fans per game, the lowest average attendance in all of the major leagues since 2005. The Rays ranked dead last in the league in attendance every year since 2012.
If there were a time to move the corroding franchise North, now would certainly be it.
Making this transition difficult are the logistics with such a move. Currently no major league caliber stadium exists in Canada outside of Toronto’s Rogers Centre with Olympic Stadium needing significant renovations and more than likely relocation for Montreal to work as a venue. This fails to mention the colossal failure Montreal was the last time around with Expos fans staying at home after the 1994 MLB strike. Adding to this is the struggling loonie that’s already preventing the NHL from expanding further in the Canadian market.
A move for MLB wouldn’t come without its hiccups, but that doesn’t make it a bad idea.
Even MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has caught onto the idea of a bringing baseball back to Montreal after the resounding success the annual spring training series has been. He’s right too; baseball fever is back in Canada and it’s not just with the Blue Jays.
Give it a little time and there could be another MLB team in Canada – this one even closer to the nation’s capital.