Montreal draws 96000+ for two MLB exhibition games
By MC
This past weekend they played a couple games between the Reds and the Bluejays at Montreal’s old (but fun) Olympic stadium. The two game series drew over 96000 people. I heard a lot of folks say. Wow “ MLB should come back. What do you think? I just said that would be cool.” However for me the event was more of a walk down memory lane seeing old friends from my Montreal and West Palm beach days when I worked with the club.
Montreal’s Olympic stadium has quite a bit of history. From the 1976 summer Olympic Games to the Expos, numerous concerts , soccer , truck pulls, RV shows , you name it…this place has hosted it. Former expo Steve Rodgers was with me as we walked the field and he talked of when the homeplate was actually closer to where the mound is currently located. The synthetic turf surface is called nex-field which has about 3/4lb of rubber per sq ft worked into the fibers. This particular synthetic turf was designed for soccer.
During the trip I had a chance during to talk with a few local people in Montreal about baseball in their awesome city! So I took a poll. It’s very unofficial and really random so the accuracy has got to be legit!
I asked 5 people 4 questions.
- Are you from Montreal? 3 were from Montreal, 1 from Haiti and one from India
- Are you a baseball fan? 3 yes’s — 2 no’s.
- If they would like to see baseball back in Montreal? 4 yes and 1 no
- Have you ever been to Olympic stadium to see an event? 5 yes and 0 no’s
- What is favorite sport? just so I could gant their responses (and that they understood what I was saying since I don’t speak French.) ALL 5 said hockey so that worked.
More details on the folks I polled: (The 5 included 2 cabbies, 1 customs agent and one bartender and some guy from Montreal i was sitting beside on the plane. 3 guys 2 girls.
I think my poll was promising, Personally (again my personal opinion) I think Montreal would be a great place for a team someday in the future but before that happens they need a plan. We all heard the same dialogue from Commissioner Manfred where he wants to see a strategic plan on how they plan to make it work for the long haul. Does that mean a new stadium or rebuild existing? Selecting the right owner? This past weekend was a small piece of the puzzle. It confirmed interest from the folks in Montreal that they enjoy seeing baseball.
