Montreal Expos may move to San Juan, Puerto Rico

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

Montreal

 

Atlanta businessman Charles Vaughn, 33, is leading a group of investors that are interested in purchasing the Expos and moving the team to San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 2004. Vaughn, a tax and finance executive, said he has been working for 10 months to put together a group to buy the club. It would play in Hiram Bithorn Stadium, which is scheduled to be renovated.

 

Vaughn sent a letter to Bud Selig last week saying his group would apply to buy the Expos. Baseball spokesman Rich Levin acknowledged receiving the letter and said it is being evaluated along with similar letters of interest in the Expos.

 

I agree that the Expos need to be moved, but to Puerto Rico?

[Guest treble charged]

I don't know what alternate place for the Expos is worse:

 

Washington or Puerto Rico.

 

I say, keep them in Montreal, as, really, in my opinion, there is no other place that right now is better for them. And before you start telling me that DC is, keep in mind that they have had a team TWICE, and lost them both times.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

Puerto Rico loves baseball.

 

Whether or not they'd embrace MLB baseball for the course of several seasons is the question.

 

And...IT CAN'T BE WORSE THAN MONTREAL

[Guest Human Fly]

I say, keep them in Montreal, as, really, in my opinion, there is no other place that right now is better for them

 

There has got to be someplace better then Montreal. They might have to take it to a city that's a little smaller then most MLB towns, but there has got to be someplace where the Franchise could have some form of success. If Montreal is as good as it gets then they should've been contracted.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

Here are big cities without baseball franchises but have one or more other franchise:

 

Salt Lake City

San Antonio

Portland

Nashville

Columbus

Buffalo

Indianapolis

New Orleans

Washington

 

There you go. Pick one. Puerto Rico would be absurd for travel reasons alone.

 

Fo sheez,

Kotzenjunge

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

That won't give one to us in Buffalo because we're small market.

 

We're always in the running for expansion teams though...and then they give them to Florida.

 

Idiots.

[Guest treble charged]

Buffalo's too close to Toronto, anyway. Besides, you guys are having enough problems with your NHL team. Putting a baseball team in the same city wouldn't be the smartest choice.

[Guest Mad Dog]

Bring them to Columbus. For the love of God. Columbus is one of the most sport starved cities in the U.S. and we never get jack for sports franchises.

 

Think about how huge the Buckeyes are and the Blue Jackets have built a huge following unlike most of the other expansion teams.

[Guest treble charged]

Bring them to Columbus. For the love of God. Columbus is one of the most sport starved cities in the U.S. and we never get jack for sports franchises.

 

Think about how huge the Buckeyes are and the Blue Jackets have built a huge following unlike most of the other expansion teams.

Go to Cleveland or Cincinnatti.

 

Although, I do have to agree with you. From what I've seen, Columbus does seem to have quite rabid sports fans. Isn't it about the only place where the MLS franchise gets any respect?

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

We don't have a problem with our NHL team...

 

the league has a problem with us having an NHL team.

 

I don't blame anyone here for not buying season tickets to a team with no owner that sold off the good players and hasn't brought in ANYONE.

 

Fuck them.

 

Rigas pissed on this city for too long.

 

We support the stupid AAA baseball team, we'd support an MLB team.

 

Hell...we outdrew a 3 game Expos/Cards series in one AAA game the same weekend

[Guest Mad Dog]

I would have to look but I think the Columbus Crew has the best attendence and numbers of any MLS team.

[Guest Olympic Slam]

Man what a diss to Montreal when Puerto Rico is considered a better option for the Expos.

[Guest treble charged]

Montreal's a nice place. I'm sure if you polled the Expos players, they'd rather stay in Montreal than go to Puerto Rico.

 

It's bad ownership, not the city, that hurt the Expos.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

"It's bad ownership, not the city, that hurt the Expos."

 

How can you say that and get on Buffalo (whose attendance didn't even drop that much) about the Sabres.

 

HELLO.

 

The owners of that team are currently in jail and about to go to trial for their own little Enron adventure

[Guest HartFan86]

It's not Montreal's fault...Montreal just isn't a baseball town. It's Hockey/Pro Wrestling and that's it.

 

Move the Expos to Washington DC, IMO.

[Guest cartman]

Buffalo's too close to Toronto, anyway. Besides, you guys are having enough problems with your NHL team. Putting a baseball team in the same city wouldn't be the smartest choice.

Being too close to Toronto should have nothing to do with it though, look at Yankees/Mets, A's/Giants, Whitesox/Cubs? to name a few.

[Guest Some Guy]

I don't think Puerto Rico is wealthy enough to support a MLB team. It's a pretty poor place, when you cross the street from the tourist coast line. If they charge the same prices as Montreal they might draw a little better but PR already has their own winter ball leagues which feature some big leaguers. But I don't think a team in PR could afford to charge so little and compete, the Expos can't/won't.

Plus there is a risk of a Hurricane this time of the year and it rains an alwful lot in the Caribean. Imagine LA having to fly all the wat to PR for one make up game, that wouldn't go over too well.

 

I think the Expos need to get the hell out of Montreal, nobody cares there.

[Guest alkeiper]

Treble is right. Montreal is not the problem, the ownership is. How do you expect a team to draw when they don't even have a local tv contract?

 

Montreal has shown a capability to draw fans before. As late as the mid 90s, they drew more fans than the NY Mets. Give them proper promotion and management and watch the fans come back.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

The year of the strike, wasn't Montreal neck-and-neck with Atlanta? That probably drew fans and ratings.

 

Fo sheez,

Kotzenjunge

[Guest Olympic Slam]

Montreal has actually been a very stable and very competitive team over the years. Especially when Philpe Alou was the manager in the 90's. Each year the team would lose a key player (Walker, Galaragga, Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson) and still remain somewhat competitive. The team is in trouble not because of ownership. It's the weak Canadian dollar, apathy from Montreal's fan base, and that rectum of a stadium they play in that play in.

[Guest treble charged]

The year of the strike, wasn't Montreal neck-and-neck with Atlanta? That probably drew fans and ratings.

Neck-and neck?

 

They were the best fucking team in the league, 6 games ahead of the Braves when the strike hit, and well on their way to drawing 2 million fans.

 

Each year the team would lose a key player (Walker, Galaragga, Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson) and still remain somewhat competitive.

I agree with you on every player there, except for Johnson. He was never anything in Montreal, and they traded him to Seattle to upgrade to Mark Langston for the play-off run. This was before the economics of the game really kicked in.

 

and that rectum of a stadium they play in that play in.

It's really not that bad of a place. People were going there in droves in the late-70's and early-80's, and no one was complaining. Once ownership tried to get a new stadium built, they started ripping apart the Big O in public. Also, any stadium would be shitty if only 4,000 people showed up. Fill that place up and it's an AWESOME atmosphere. Last year's Grey Cup game, for example (over 65,000 people).

[Guest redbaron51]

if montreal moves in 2004, doesn't that mean it'll break the contract that MLBPA and the MLB have. No team shall move until 2006?

 

 

This is all garbage then

[Guest Phr33k]

Ownership did the Expos in. The fans don't care. But do you know who the Expos fans were? Anglophones. Do you know who got rid of the anglophones? The Parti Quebecois, a French separatist party who just happens to have been running Quebec for 25 years.

 

That's who you can blame. Levesque, Bouchard, Parizeau, even that little rat Bernard Landry. The Parti Quebecois killed baseball in Montreal.

 

But I still hate Jeffrey Loria.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

Teams can relocate whenever.

 

But there can be no contraction

[Guest phoenixrising]

Johnson also had a couple average years in Seattle before everything finally clicked.

 

If they're considering taking a team to Latin America, then why not Mexico City? Baseball is pretty big in Mexico and you don't have the weather problems associated with San Juan.

[Guest RevEvil]

Johnson also had a couple average years in Seattle before everything finally clicked.

 

If they're considering taking a team to Latin America, then why not Mexico City? Baseball is pretty big in Mexico and you don't have the weather problems associated with San Juan.

They'd definately sell alot of merchandise in the southwest.

[Guest The Czech Republic]

Johnson also had a couple average years in Seattle before everything finally clicked.

 

If they're considering taking a team to Latin America, then why not Mexico City?  Baseball is pretty big in Mexico and you don't have the weather problems associated with San Juan.

They'd definately sell alot of merchandise in the southwest.

I thought the Dimaondbacks were having financial trouble.

[Rob E Dangerously]

So.. how long until San Juan games are cancelled when a hurricane comes though the island?

[Guest redbaron51]

So.. how long until San Juan games are cancelled when a hurricane comes though the island?

no need really.

 

Do you expect to see the expo's in the post season, which that is hurricane season

[Guest The Czech Republic]

Will they be renamed the San Juan Stabbers?