Oakland needs a new ballpark, but the Rays need a new city, like Montreal.

Build the freaking park in Oakland,

Move the Rays to Arizona, and the D-backs to Las Vegas or the moon.

Florida has shown a near total lack of interest in baseball. The Rays and Marlins (despite a new park) have cracked 2 million fans a total of 4 times between them (1 Tampa, 3 Miami) take away their first seasons and you are down to 2 (both Miami) - the 2 non-opening seasons were when Miami opened their new park, and the season when Miami won the World Series for the first time. That's it. Montreal, in an earlier time when 2 million was as rare as 3 million is now, did it 4 times (1979-1980-1982-1983) - safe to say they would've done it in 1981 without the strike (on pace for it easily). Without the 1994 strike they might have had the push in September with that great team to reach it again (Pedro Martinez, Larry Walker both future HOF'ers early in their careers plus many other very good players) and who knows what would've happened if they played the rest of that year. Sigh.

Bottom line though - 2 teams in Florida combined in an era when 2 million is common only have as many times reaching as the Expos did in their lifetime, which was done in a horrid stadium in a bad location (I saw a game there in 1994 and with over 35k it felt empty).

Move the Rays to Montreal and you'll see far, far better crowds and better TV ratings. Both Miami and Tampa get under 100k watching each game, but the Jays with all of Canada to themselves get 500k+ a game and over 1 million often. Safe to say a new Expos would get 100k-200k easily especially if they were the ex-Rays with a contender every year.

Also, haven't baseball commissioners said this about those 2 teams for decades now? Especially Oakland? I expect Oakland to move to Vegas soon.

“Obviously, the end of that lease is a hard deadline, but you need to take into account that stadiums take a little bit of time to build, right?”

I don't recall any of my landlords being required to build me a new house when my lease expired.

which was done in a horrid stadium in a bad location (I saw a game there in 1994 and with over 35k it felt empty).

There's no way that Montreal's park was more horrid/poorly located than Tampa's, at least in comparison to the rest of the big league parks then vs. now.

Move the Rays to Montreal and you'll see far, far better crowds and better TV ratings.

Tampa's TV ratings are fine.

Montreal may well better be a better market than Tampa, but I'm sure if baseball returns there, it will once again become one of the league's bottom markets, as it was for all of my baseball watching lifetime.

As for Miami, it's hard to say whether the city will ever support the franchise, given that the club's fans have repeatedly been given the treatment that led to 9,800 Expos fans a game at the end of the run in Montreal.

Move the Rays to Montreal . . .

A publicly-financed state-of-the-art stadium and a big bucks ownership group are requirements today. Neither seem to be in view in Montreal.

Florida’s population continues to grow, and I doubt MLB will abandon the area anytime soon. The Marlins sold for $1.2B recently. There’s money to be made there.

Move the Rays to Oakland and the A's to Tampa. Done.

Montreal may well better be a better market than Tampa, but I'm sure if baseball returns there, it will once again become one of the league's bottom markets, as it was for all of my baseball watching lifetime.

The Expos got good for the first time in 1979, and their attendance responded, growing to 2.1 million, fourth in the National League. They were 4th, 3rd, 3rd and 3rd in attendance the next four years. Then they had an off year in 1984 while the Jays were becoming a contender in the AL, and the Expos were never in the top half of the NL in attendance again.

$1.2bn is basically embarrassingly little in the current economy of sports franchises. I doubt you could get any other Franchise for that little, except maybe the Rays.

Montreal even to this day has an abiding love for the Expos. Tampa has never shown even the slightest love for the Rays. Move the Rays back to Montreal and re-create the Expos. Then maybe the Marlins can go back to being the Florida Marlins, and have some chance of becoming a successful franchise.

One of the problems the A's have is the success of the basketball Warriors. The A's just don't register in the consciousness of Oakland and the Bay Area right now. Will a new ballpark fix that? I don't know. The Bay Area is probably the most advanced/sophisticated market in the country. You might get more audience for a WNBA franchise or perhaps even an international cricket franchise, rather than an MLB franchise right now. People are pretty sophisticated in the Bay Area, and outside the Giants, MLB and A's are a niche sport right now.

Is the Olympic Stadium in Montreal hard to get to by car? Bad parking? I remember going there by public transit, and it seemed convenient enough.

It was certainly a strange cavernous place. Odd acoustics, compounded by a fan culture that was the inverse of American baseball stadiums. You know how you go to a game in the US and everybody's hopping around and yelling and they have all this canned noise going perpetually, very little relation to the play. In Montreal, at least in the 1980s, I remember silence until they actually threw a pitch. Then, in proportion to how interesting the situation got, the fans got more & more into it. There was none of this "two strikes on some random batter with nobody on in the third inning, MAKE SOME NOISE!!" stuff.

$1.2bn is basically embarrassingly little in the current economy of sports franchises. I doubt you could get any other Franchise for that little, except maybe the Rays.

There are five MLB teams currently valued at less than $1.2B, according to Forbes.

I went to Stade Olympique for one of the pre-season expositions, and while it's not as central as the most recent proposed location, it's pretty easy on the Metro and if it's hard to get to by car/bad parking, it doesn't seem to bother the families coming to the Biodome/tower/botanical gardens in the same complex. If the team and city/province (not sure who owns it) were to commit to it being primarily a baseball stadium, maybe make the roof retractable, it could be a decent one. It'd still look like a spaceship, but that's kind of cool.

And, yeah, they are still pretty fond of Les Expos there; those games got loud and the cheers for former Expos were huge (heck, remember when they were calling for Vlad Jr before his rookie season?). An AL East team would have a ready-made rivalry with Toronto. It feels obvious enough that I half-suspect Sternberg is trying to thread the line between running out the clock on the lease in St. Pete and trying to keep the value up for whoever eventually buys it.

The Expos got good for the first time in 1979, and their attendance responded, growing to 2.1 million, fourth in the National League. They were 4th, 3rd, 3rd and 3rd in attendance the next four years. Then they had an off year in 1984 while the Jays were becoming a contender in the AL, and the Expos were never in the top half of the NL in attendance again.

But even when their attendance was good, they still had issues, some due to the language, some to the exchange rate. It seemed they struggled with media deals. And they were selling off good players before it was cool.

Tampa has never shown even the slightest love for the Rays. Move the Rays back to Montreal and re-create the Expos.

As mentioned many times, Tampa's TV and radio ratings are fine. It seems the folks of the other Bay Area don't want to spend much time in what is unquestionably baseball's worst ballpark that's also difficult to get to.

Montreal even to this day has an abiding love for the Expos.

And I believe this is an overly romanticized view of the Expos. They were the obvious contraction target for multiple reasons, not just because Jeffrey Loria is terrible.

There are five MLB teams currently valued at less than $1.2B, according to Forbes.

I mean, you could read your own source, and see who is at the bottom of said list.

Forbes has a long and storied history of underrating how much teams are worth.

It was certainly a strange cavernous place. Odd acoustics, compounded by a fan culture that was the inverse of American baseball stadiums. You know how you go to a game in the US and everybody's hopping around and yelling and they have all this canned noise going perpetually, very little relation to the play. In Montreal, at least in the 1980s, I remember silence until they actually threw a pitch. Then, in proportion to how interesting the situation got, the fans got more & more into it. There was none of this "two strikes on some random batter with nobody on in the third inning, MAKE SOME NOISE!!" stuff.

Actually, in the late 70s/early 80s, the Expos crowds always sang, that song "Val de ree, val de rah, val de ree, val de rah ha ha ha ha ha" which I always thought was pretty cool, especially when they showed Donald Sutherland singing along.

Obviously never knew whether that was spontaneous or prompted. Or how long that remained a thing.

I grew up about 100 miles from Canada (Windsor, ON) and we got the Detroit papers delivered and I always saw the TV sports listings that included all the CBC games and always kind of wished we could get them. Somehow, for the famous Phillies/Expos final series of 1980, I was futzing around on my smallish TV on the Friday night of the first game and was able to get the game on Channel 9 from Windsor with an actually not bad picture. Same thing for the second game. Watched every pitch of both and the memory has kind of stuck with me and it's kind of the first association thing that hits my head when the Expos are the topic. It was great baseball and CBC did a great job and it was a massive series, but a lot of the fun was probably the thrill of the chase to get it.

It was still a thing in 1981 at least. I remember the Dodgers mockingly singing it after the Blue Monday game.

The Expos got good for the first time in 1979, and their attendance responded, growing to 2.1 million, fourth in the National League. They were 4th, 3rd, 3rd and 3rd in attendance the next four years.

And from 1989-92, the A's were 2nd, 2nd, 3rd and 4th, topping out at 2.9 M and, if memory serves, they even had the #1 payroll in 1992.

Montreal metro is 4.3 M people which is much larger than any available US market (assuming a 3rd team into NY or LA metro is off the table) but of course hasn't had baseball for a long time and baseball's not exactly the centre of Montreal's sporting culture. I've never had the privelege of visiting Montreal (got close once) but I suspect that baseball in Montreal will be a lot like baseball in Miami (metro pop of 6.1 M).

It seems the folks of the other Bay Area don't want to spend much time in what is unquestionably baseball's worst ballpark that's also difficult to get to.

Really, the Oakland Coliseum is easy to get to, perhaps the easiest thing to get to in the greater Bay Area. It has a BART station right next to it, a generous parking lot (and a lot of folks park for free in the BART parking lot if it's not full), and very easy freeway access from 1 freeway (I-880) and relatively easy freeway access from another one (I-580), and is therefore quite a bit more accessible than "Oracle Park" or whatever the Giants' stadium is called now.

And in fact, the Oakland Coliseum actually can be a pretty pleasant place to watch a ballgame, despite what the A's real-estate-marketing mafia want you to believe.

I grew up about 100 miles from Canada (Windsor, ON)

I remember a bunch of us driving from Detroit to Windsor, thru a tunnel to .... er, see some entertainment.

it was not an athletic event, however - unless one wants to use a broad definition of the term.

Really, the Oakland Coliseum is easy to get to, perhaps the easiest thing to get to in the greater Bay Area.

As noted, I was talking about the other Bay Area.

it was not an athletic event, however - unless one wants to use a broad definition of the term.

We see what you did there.

As noted, I was talking about the other Bay Area

Apologies, some how I didn't get that.

it was not an athletic event, however - unless one wants to use a broad definition of the term.

Surely pole dancing will be an Olympic sport by 2032.

Move the Rays to Oakland and the A's to Tampa. Done.

No, no, no. Move the A's to Kansas City, the Royals to Philadelphia, the Phillies to Tampa, the Rays to San Jose, and the Expos to Washington. (Yes, again.) Checkmate, atheists!

As noted, I was talking about the other Bay Area.

indeed

The Expos outdrew the defending World Champion Cardinals in 1983.

This may not be the best economic time to be asking to $3B or so to build a baseball stadium. I suppose there's a precedent for a new team in a city that had a "failed" franchise (Milwaukee, Kansas City, Seattle). It sure seems like tempting fate to drop a crap load of cash going to Montreal. Indianapolis hasn't made any noises about wanting MLB? Perhaps they could have a good regional rivalry with the Reds, Cards and Cubs.

“I think a great man once said, all good things must end at some point.

Manfred is an empty suit.

Indianapolis hasn't made any noises about wanting MLB?

Not since the Hoosiers became the Newark Pepper. (Yes, singular.)

In the mid-80s, they (Indy) tried to lure a team (Pirates, A’s) into moving, woulda become the Arrows. Don’t recall that their attempts to get a park made any progress.