Montreal Mayor faces opposition regarding MLB ballpark

Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre has been vocal about MLB returning to Montreal lately. But a political party does not agree with the multi-million dollar blank cheque Coderre is giving to MLB to land a team.

The political party, Projet Montréal, to a possible free spending on a new downtown ballpark. Projet Montréal Leader Valérie Plante says “not a penny” of public money will be spent on a new baseball stadium, unless Montrealers agree to it.

Plante: “We love baseball. We want a team in Montreal, but we’re not going to use Montrealers’ money without consulting them.” The party has vowed to organize a referendum during the next elections, four years from now…

According to Plante, the total cost to build a new stadium could easily be in the range of $500 million, if not more. It’s unclear what percentage of that cost would come from the public purse. No business plan has been made public. Projet Montréal asked the mayor last Monday how much public money would be involved for the funding a stadium, but it hasn’t received a response.

It is not that Plante is against the return of Major League Baseball to Montreal. She is not even against the construction of a downtown ballpark, but the plans have to be transparent, and that is far from the case right now according to Projet Montréal’s leader. “We have limited financial resources, and there are many needs. Public transport … is a priority, housing is another one, so yes, a baseball team, but not at any cost.”

The Montréal Expos were sold to a group of investors, who moved the team to Washington DC in an orchestrated move by MLB in which also John Henry (current owner of the Red Sox) and Jeffrey Loria (current owner of the Miami Marlins and former owner of the Montréal Expos) were involved.

Since the move of the Expos, the city of Montréal has hosted several exhibition games at Stade Olympique. All of those games were big sellouts. This may indicate that Montréal is a baseball town after all, unlike what many are saying.

One final remark has to be made on the referendum, proposed by Projet Montréal. The political party wants to organize it during the elections of 2021. By then MLB may have decided already to bring a team to the city. Things like that can go quick. But it depends on how quick the Tampa Bay Rays will get a new ballpark. If that case hasn’t been settled, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred doesn’t want to talk about a possible expansion.