Blue Jays Could Help Bring Baseball Back to Montreal

Montreal baseball fans will be treated to two MLB exhibition games between the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Mets ahead of the 2014 season.  With the Toronto Blue Jays booking the pair of preseason games against the New York Mets at Olympic Stadium, it may be a small step, but a very necessary one in convincing Major League Baseball that Montreal deserves to get its ball team back.

Montreal hasn’t had a MLB team since the Montreal Expos packed up shop and became the Washington Nationals back in 2004. But there’s no denying there’s a movement afoot to bring professional ball back to Montreal. Earlier this season, more than 1,000 Expos fans invaded the Rogers Centre in Toronto to show their support in bringing an MLB team back to Montreal.

However, while these two exhibition games might be a stepping stone in achieving that goal down the road, there are a lot of obstacles in the way. To begin with, the Jays coming to Montreal has more to do with Toronto trying to build its brand across Canada than anything else. The Blue Jays, this season’s World Series favorite before their season went south, have been talking about visiting different Canadian cities for a while now.

“If we could ever work it out with a stadium that would work, the people wanted us, and we thought it worked, we’d consider it,” Jays president Paul Beeston told reporters back in 2011 about the possibility of exhibition games in Montreal. “We can do television there, we can do radio there, and Montreal was a great baseball city.”

Another issue is Olympic Stadium. The Big O will reportedly play host to the Jays and Mets in March, but will certainly need renovations to bring it up to MLB standards. Those renovations might include new turf and or repairs to its frequently ailing roof.

But if the city can bring the Big O up to code, you still have to wonder how many baseball fans will come out to watch the Blue Jays in an exhibition game. More than 31,000 Expos fans packed Olympic Stadium in the team’s final MLB game, but the team struggled to bring in 5,000 fans per game for most of the season before the big finale.

On the plus side, Montreal is getting a taste of Major League Baseball again. Now it’s just up to local ball fans to show the league a strong baseball fan base remains in Montreal. It’s a small first step, but one that might end up being the most important one in the long run.