Montreal Spring Training Games

[Horses Fart]

Have you even seen the Trop?.

 

Caught a game there last year.....its sure is a beauty.

[jaysfan2014]

Another reason for Montreal to get a team.. even if it's not an East team:

 

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseball/24506314/oco-coliseum-already-dealing-with-sewage-flooding

 

Since San Jose seems out of the question, and Portland/Las Vegas/San Antonio are not options, and Vancouver doesn't have a MLB appropriate stadium..

 

Also forgot to mention the A's are only tied to Oakland until 2015.. although with the stadium's issues, it could be sooner..

[jaysblue]

Another reason for Montreal to get a team.. even if it's not an East team:

 

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseball/24506314/oco-coliseum-already-dealing-with-sewage-flooding

 

Since San Jose seems out of the question, and Portland/Las Vegas/San Antonio are not options, and Vancouver doesn't have a MLB appropriate stadium..

 

Also forgot to mention the A's are only tied to Oakland until 2015.. although with the stadium's issues, it could be sooner..

 

Me and Spanky were just walking from the ballpark and this is a big league city for sure! Baseball needs to come back to Montreal!

[xposbrad]

They showed a bud selig interview recently where he said they had no plans for expansion or relocation. I don't think we have a chance for at least a couple of years. Tampa Bay will be the most logical choice. They are competitive now, some team friendly deals as well, but when that changes, and they don't make the post season for several years, attendance will go down even more and with no stadium maybe the odds will increase for relocation.

[Chappy]

They showed a bud selig interview recently where he said they had no plans for expansion or relocation. I don't think we have a chance for at least a couple of years. Tampa Bay will be the most logical choice. They are competitive now, some team friendly deals as well, but when that changes, and they don't make the post season for several years, attendance will go down even more and with no stadium maybe the odds will increase for relocation.

 

Why will it change? They run a tight ship in TB, they know what they are doing. If anything, they will be quite good for a long time on a limited payroll.

[KSaw]

I'm assuming some spring training attendance record was broken??

 

The record is 115,300. The previous record was 93,103. Both were the Dodgers hosting games in the L.A Memorial Coliseum.

[jaysfan2014]

Try after this season. Price is a goner, as is Zobrist and Loney(heavily back-loaded deal, likely meaning a trade will happen). And if no progress on a stadium is made by this season, Longoria is likely gone as well. And Cobb will likely be dealt after Price, as he hits arbitration after this season.

 

The franchise is basically all-in this season. Any failure will mean a huge fire sale after this season, if not sooner if they struggle. Sternberg's not going to continue to support the franchise if attendance doesn't improve, a new stadium doesn't get built, or the team struggles.

 

Rays payroll is at $76.7M this year. With 10 arb players next year and options on Zobrist and Escobar, the team would have been smarter to trade David Price during this offseason instead of holding onto him and risking future payroll flexibility if the attendance doesn't improve or a new stadium doesn't get planned.

[G-Snarls]

Oh they tried to trade Price. But they wanted a king's ransom and wouldn't settle for less. And they know they have another chance or two.

[GeorgiaPeach]

Have you even seen the Trop? It's ranked by many as the worst stadium or next to the O.co as the worst stadiums in baseball. And attendances back in 1994 all around baseball were lower than they are now, so those numbers have to be adjusted for inflation, population growth, increased fanbase, etc.

 

What hurt Montreal was bad ownership. Today, they wouldn't have this problem as much, as there are owners committed to get a team in Montreal.

 

If you're talking to me, the only stadiums I haven't been to are Target Field and the Marlins new park.

 

Olympic Stadium was by far the worst park. Yes worse than the Trop and yes worse than McAfee Park (Oakland Col.)

[GeorgiaPeach]

Me and Spanky were just walking from the ballpark and this is a big league city for sure! Baseball needs to come back to Montreal!

 

You know where else is a big league city. Toronto.

 

And with the rabidness of Canadian fans & Torontonians, Toronto needs a 2nd team.

[o2cui2i]

You know where else is a big league city. Toronto.

 

And with the rabidness of Canadian fans & Torontonians, Toronto needs a 2nd team.

 

odds of a second team being as horribly mismanaged are miniscule so it would mean that the jays would die out and be moved.... lol viscous circle of life kind of thing.

[GeorgiaPeach]

Try after this season. Price is a goner, as is Zobrist and Loney(heavily back-loaded deal, likely meaning a trade will happen). And if no progress on a stadium is made by this season, Longoria is likely gone as well. And Cobb will likely be dealt after Price, as he hits arbitration after this season.

 

And they'll replenish their farm trading Price, Loney & Zobrist. You remember them trading Shields.....Wil Myers going forward is a better piece than Shields. And the Rays got Odorizzi back as well. The Montgomery, Patrick Leonard, Wade Davis & Elliot Johnson aspect of the deal was even more youth coming to the Rays. The Rays will contend and replenish as long as they keep with their plan.

 

The franchise is basically all-in this season. Any failure will mean a huge fire sale after this season, if not sooner if they struggle. Sternberg's not going to continue to support the franchise if attendance doesn't improve, a new stadium doesn't get built, or the team struggles.

 

The team is winning and has a model in place to continue winning. I'm sorry, but I'll take the sell high, buy low, not get too attached to players because the fans love them approach any day of the week over what the Jays did last year.

[Chappy]

Hah, I'm not in Montreal, he's full of s***.

 

You're alive!! Silvio should have posted something, shame on him for misleading Ken.

[Caper]

Try after this season. Price is a goner, as is Zobrist and Loney(heavily back-loaded deal, likely meaning a trade will happen). And if no progress on a stadium is made by this season, Longoria is likely gone as well.

 

Longoria has one of the best contracts in baseball.

[Caper]

Anyway... I just noticed Montreal has like 4 times the population of Tampa Bay. Didn't know that.

[jaysfan2014]

Which will be very attractive to many teams, when the Rays are forced to trade him due to financial constraints or MLB's 29 other owners pulling the plug on the Rays, feeling that Tampa will never be able to sustain itself financially without revenue sharing.

 

Look, I don't see Longoria staying in Tampa, especially as his salary starts to rise next season, if attendance doesn't increase this season. At their current payroll, one bad season will guarantee a fire sale, similar to the Marlins in 2012.

[GeorgiaPeach]

Which will be very attractive to many teams, when the Rays are forced to trade him due to financial constraints or MLB's 29 other owners pulling the plug on the Rays, feeling that Tampa will never be able to sustain itself financially without revenue sharing.

 

Look, I don't see Longoria staying in Tampa, especially as his salary starts to rise next season, if attendance doesn't increase this season. At their current payroll, one bad season will guarantee a fire sale, similar to the Marlins in 2012.

 

There may end up being what seems like a fire sale, but I'm pretty sure the Rays don't decimate their team into an atrocity.

[xposbrad]

There may end up being what seems like a fire sale, but I'm pretty sure the Rays don't decimate their team into an atrocity.

 

No, but, they might not make the playoffs or be a top team in the East while some of the players they get develop or some might not become who they want to be, you can't strike gold every trade. Plus can you imagine how low attendance will get when the team finishes in possibly 3rd or 4th in the East 1 or 2 years? You can't assume just because they restock they will be competitive, or finish in a playoff position, bad luck/injuries/bad trades do happen etc.. Their fanbase is already having issues showing up while their team is very competitive, just imagine what will happen if they aren't for a year or two, or three?

[GeorgiaPeach]

No, but, they might not make the playoffs or be a top team in the East while some of the players they get develop or some might not become who they want to be, you can't strike gold every trade. Plus can you imagine how low attendance will get when the team finishes in possibly 3rd or 4th in the East 1 or 2 years? You can't assume just because they restock they will be competitive, or finish in a playoff position, bad luck/injuries/bad trades do happen etc.. Their fanbase is already having issues showing up while their team is very competitive, just imagine what will happen if they aren't for a year or two, or three?

 

And moving the Rays from one bad fan base to another solves what????

 

The Expos who in 1992 & 1993 finished 2nd in their division with a crazy good, young team and was dominating in 1994 was averaging 24,000+ fans to games in Montreal, 11th of 14 National League teams.

 

This Canadian spin of we want our team back is deserved or good for MLB how?

[jaysfan2014]

With the St. Pete economy the way it is, numbers near Expos territory would be a strong possibility. Remember, even when winning, the Rays had many games with attendance in the low 10,000s (and even one in the 9000s) last year.

[John_Havok]

And moving the Rays from one bad fan base to another solves what????

 

The Expos who in 1992 & 1993 finished 2nd in their division with a crazy good, young team and was dominating in 1994 was averaging 24,000+ fans to games in Montreal, 11th of 14 National League teams.

 

This Canadian spin of we want our team back is deserved or good for MLB how?

 

With a new stadium and better location, I don't think there's a lot of doubt that a team in Montreal would work just fine. But it's not happening anytime soon.

[jaysfan2014]

Well, with Tampa averaging 18,646 for a winning team.. that's not a good sign.

[xposbrad]

And moving the Rays from one bad fan base to another solves what????

 

The Expos who in 1992 & 1993 finished 2nd in their division with a crazy good, young team and was dominating in 1994 was averaging 24,000+ fans to games in Montreal, 11th of 14 National League teams.

 

This Canadian spin of we want our team back is deserved or good for MLB how?

 

The Big O is probably in one of the dumpiest neighborhoods in the entire city. I have no clue why it was chosen, but like a lot of things that don't make sense in this city, it's time for a private business/investor to make the right choices this time around and not the government. I think the average attendance is somewhere around 32,500. I think with a 42,000 seat capacity open air stadium, in downtown, you probably could get a lot of 30,000+ nights. Especially if the Expos are in the AL with teams like the Yanks/Sox etc..