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Tampa Bay Rays --Tropicana Field

CTListener said:
How long would it take Montreal to get Stade Olympique in suitable condition to become a temporary home for the Rays (or the Flurries or the Drifts or whatever sub-Arctic name they choose)? And what is the status of plans for a new, state-of-the-art MLB stadium there?
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www.espn.com

Could your city get an MLB expansion team? Breaking down potential top candidates

From Portland to Orlando and Mexico City to Montreal, here's which locations could be in the mix when baseball decides to go to 32 franchises.
www.espn.com www.espn.com

This article is several months old, but lists possible cities interested in getting an expansion team. Unless something changes, the Rays will be moving on. The team has never had good attendance during their entire history. The bad stadium conditions never helped.

Montreal has groups that are interested. The Expos were possibly headed to the World Series in 1994 when the strike cancelled the season. The team never recovered and ultimately went to Washington DC...
 
CTListener said:
How long would it take Montreal to get Stade Olympique in suitable condition to become a temporary home for the Rays (or the Flurries or the Drifts or whatever sub-Arctic name they choose)? And what is the status of plans for a new, state-of-the-art MLB stadium there?
Click to expand...
Wouldn't they, like the Cleveland Browns and Winnipeg Jets did, simply return to the Expos name? Didn't Montreal keep all trademarks, designs, etc. when the team was moved to Washington?
 
rosecitymedia said:
Wouldn't they, like the Cleveland Browns and Winnipeg Jets did, simply return to the Expos name? Didn't Montreal keep all trademarks, designs, etc. when the team was moved to Washington?
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure Major League Baseball (Not the Nationals) currently has the rights to the Expos logo. You can still buy Expos merchandise. It would be logical to assume that if Montreal gets another team, they will be the Expos once again...
 
tbolt909 said:
I'm pretty sure Major League Baseball (Not the Nationals) currently has the rights to the Expos logo. You can still buy Expos merchandise. It would be logical to assume that if Montreal gets another team, they will be the Expos once again...
Click to expand...
Are you sure that the Nationals ownership didn't retain the Expos name, logo, uniform design, etc., knowing that they could market Expos merchandise to increasingly nostalgic fans? That would make far more sense to me than your speculation. Unless there's specific language in the agreements between MLB and its clubs that orders owners of teams that move and change their names to forfeit all rights to the old identity to MLB, I can't see your outcome at all. What kind of commercial operation willingly hands over a potential profit source if it's not being forced to by regulations or a court ruling?
 
I am not 100% sure of this, but Iā€™m fairly sure the Nats still own the Expos name. Pre-COVID, there was a lot of Expos gear in the stadium stores.

What Iā€™m curious about is what happened to the proposed ballpark in St. Pete? They lost funding?

I figured the end result would be similar to what the Aā€™s are doingā€¦couple seasons ā€œhotel stayā€ in Orlando or Jacksonville while a new stadium is being built.
 
CTListener said:
Are you sure that the Nationals ownership didn't retain the Expos name, logo, uniform design, etc., knowing that they could market Expos merchandise to increasingly nostalgic fans? That would make far more sense to me than your speculation. Unless there's specific language in the agreements between MLB and its clubs that orders owners of teams that move and change their names to forfeit all rights to the old identity to MLB, I can't see your outcome at all. What kind of commercial operation willingly hands over a potential profit source if it's not being forced to by regulations or a court ruling?
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According to a site about Canadian Intellectual Property Rights, the Nationals never owned the Expos trademark. MLB took over the team 2 years before they moved to DC.
MLB, Inc is listed as the registered owner. A few years before the Expos moved, baseball was considering contraction. They were going to eliminate the Twins and Expos franchises. It didn't happen.

The Tennessee Titans still own the Oilers rights. They must because the team wore old Oilers uniforms last year in a game. When Houston got the expansion team, they wanted to use Oilers name but couldn't. Hence the Texans.
Each case of teams relocating is not the same...
 
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tbolt909 said:
The Tennessee Titans still own the Oilers rights. They must because the team wore old Oilers uniforms last year in a game. When Houston got the expansion team, they wanted to use Oilers name but couldn't. Hence the Texans.
Each case of teams relocating is not the same...
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They do, and Amy Adams is such a...

Aw, the hell with it. Go Texans!
 
Is Montreal even a viable baseball market? The Expos had much difficulty selling tickets, and I can't imagine that the Expos' TV and radio ratings were through the roof. Then again, Tampa/St. Pete has hardly proven itself a baseball market.
 
AM-FM-DXer said:
Is Montreal even a viable baseball market? The Expos had much difficulty selling tickets, and I can't imagine that the Expos' TV and radio ratings were through the roof. Then again, Tampa/St. Pete has hardly proven itself a baseball market.
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Attendance in Montreal was up and down during their history. That's true in many markets. Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Tampa, Miami, and some others have had years where crowds were sparse. The Rays have never had a passionate fan base. There's probably more Yankee and Red Sox fans in Florida with all the snow birds.

Montreal is obviously a hockey town first, but the Expos were a viable baseball franchise there...
 
Montreal has been clamoring for baseball's return, to a degree, for years. Enough to warrant an MLB teams return to Quebec, though? Look, if the league thought they could make any real money in fielding a team in Stade Olympique, the trigger would have long been pulled to move a team like the Rays or Marlins up there. It's not a big, flashy market, It's not in the U.S., and worse yet for many consumers in the States, it's predominantly French speaking and peculiar. No shot intended towards the fine folks in Montreal or Quebec, but they can't even get the Nordiques restored in Quebec City, where hockey rules the roost in sports. The Expos, like the Senators and Colt .45's, are forever to be relegated to the annals of history. Montreal is simply not getting a major league baseball team.
 
tbolt909 said:
Attendance in Montreal was up and down during their history. That's true in many markets. Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Tampa, Miami, and some others have had years where crowds were sparse. The Rays have never had a passionate fan base. There's probably more Yankee and Red Sox fans in Florida with all the snow birds.

Montreal is obviously a hockey town first, but the Expos were a viable baseball franchise there...
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The Marlins' fan base never forgave the cynical tear-down of the team's first World Series champions by Wayne Huizenga. The similarly crass behavior of John Henry after the second title, including selling the club to Jeff Loria so Henry could invest in the Red Sox, was the final nail in the coffin. I doubt that even the most free-spending, pure baseball-fan owner could revive Miami as a baseball town.
 
rosecitymedia said:
Montreal has been clamoring for baseball's return, to a degree, for years. Enough to warrant an MLB teams return to Quebec, though? Look, if the league thought they could make any real money in fielding a team in Stade Olympique, the trigger would have long been pulled to move a team like the Rays or Marlins up there. It's not a big, flashy market, It's not in the U.S., and worse yet for many consumers in the States, it's predominantly French speaking and peculiar. No shot intended towards the fine folks in Montreal or Quebec, but they can't even get the Nordiques restored in Quebec City, where hockey rules the roost in sports. The Expos, like the Senators and Colt .45's, are forever to be relegated to the annals of history. Montreal is simply not getting a major league baseball team.
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Quebec City is much smaller than Montreal. The Hartford Whalers aren't ever coming back from Carolina either.

Unless something changes in Tampa - St. Pete, the Rays will be going somewhere. Montreal would likely have the same chances as Portland, Memphis or any other American city looking to land a team...
 
rosecitymedia said:
Montreal has been clamoring for baseball's return, to a degree, for years. Enough to warrant an MLB teams return to Quebec, though? Look, if the league thought they could make any real money in fielding a team in Stade Olympique, the trigger would have long been pulled to move a team like the Rays or Marlins up there. It's not a big, flashy market, It's not in the U.S., and worse yet for many consumers in the States, it's predominantly French speaking and peculiar. No shot intended towards the fine folks in Montreal or Quebec, but they can't even get the Nordiques restored in Quebec City, where hockey rules the roost in sports. The Expos, like the Senators and Colt .45's, are forever to be relegated to the annals of history. Montreal is simply not getting a major league baseball team.
Click to expand...
One noteā€¦.the Colt 45s were renamed the Houston Astros. They never moved ;)
 
Not so fast! The folks in the Tampa area want to hang on to their team, according to this story from Channel 10 last night

www.wtsp.com

The deal for a new Rays stadium is on life support. Could a preserver come from across the bay?

The Rays say the deal is dead, but legally it's still alive. What's to come next in the Rays stadium saga?
www.wtsp.com www.wtsp.com

Here's what MLB says:

www.si.com

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred Discusses Possible Relocation of Tampa Bay Rays

Things are getting dicey in the Tampa area for the Tampa Bay Rays. First, the Rays will spend the 2025 season in a temporary facility, playing at the spring tra
www.si.com www.si.com
 
TheBigA said:
Not so fast! The folks in the Tampa area want to hang on to their team, according to this story from Channel 10 last night
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The folks in Oakland wanted the A's to stay. They'll be playing in Sacramento until the Vegas ballpark is ready.
Tropicana Field was damaged by Hurricane Milton and is now unplayable for 2025. The deal for the new stadium has collapsed at the moment. Things are certainly in limbo right now...
 
tbolt909 said:
The folks in Oakland wanted the A's to stay.
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Not the same thing. In St. Petersburg, the government and the team are both are still looking for local options. They haven't fallen completely apart as they did in Oakland. The team isn't moving until the owner says they're moving, and right now that's not the discussion. They have a plan in place for 2025.
 


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