http://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/2013/03/21/mlb_montreal_expos_rebirth_under_review.html

MLB: Montreal Expos rebirth under review
Former Expo Warren Cromartie spearheads study of city’s baseball pulse.

By: Bill Beacon The Canadian Press, Published on Thu Mar 21 2013

MONTREAL—Warren Cromartie is convinced that Major League Baseball can be reborn in Montreal.

The former Expos outfielder and head of the Montreal Baseball Project, a group whose aim is to bring the major leagues back to the city, says he’ll know soon whether fans and the business community really want it.

His group and the Montreal Board of Trade launched a feasibility study on Wednesday to see if conditions are right and the interest is there.

“The group that I assembled will make it clear to everyone, including Major League Baseball, that we’re serious about bringing it back,” Cromartie said at a news conference.

A team from the accounting firm Ernst and Young will analyze the financial factors and stadium options, and law firm BCP LLP will look at the legal and financing structures of the project.

The polling firm Leger Marketing will take the pulse of the business community and the public to see if there are enough people ready to buy tickets and corporate boxes to make the team work.

The $400,000 study, with costs split evenly between the Board of Trade and some private business people, is to be completed by the end of the year.

The Montreal Expos, who joined the National League as an expansion team in 1969, were a huge success in the 1980s. But the team was playing in a nearly empty stadium by the time it was sold and moved to Washington to become the Nationals after the 2004 season.

Cromartie, who launched the project last year, said conditions are better for baseball to succeed now. He said the revival of the Canadian dollar, more television revenue, the advent of social media and increased revenue sharing in baseball would all help.

And he feels the introduction of wild-card playoff spots would boost interest by giving the team a better chance to reach the post-season.

“When I was playing here, how many times would we have made the playoffs?” said Cromartie, an Expo from 1974 to 1983. “So a lot has changed in a positive way.”

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George