Major League Baseball in Montreal could be a reality sooner, rather than later, according to a report Saturday in the Journal de Montreal.
The paper says Montreal businessman Stephen Bronfman is about to acquire a minority stake in the struggling Tampa Bay Rays — not in a matter of years, but a matter of months.
The paper quotes Bronfman as saying talks between his group and the current Rays owner, Stuart Sternberg, are very advanced, and that they're on track to getting a 30 per cent stake in the team.
The could pave the way for Montreal and Tampa to go ahead with much talked-about plans to have the Rays split their time between Tampa and Montreal — provided Major League Baseball and the MLB Players' Association approve — as early as the 2021 season.
Bronfman is also suggesting he'd like to have broadcast and web deals, and even land at the Peel Basin secured for a new ballpark, by the end of 2020.
The suggestion, according to the Journal piece, is that a new downtown ballpark for the team — which would be called neither the Expos nor the Rays — could open for business by 2024. Until then, of course, the new entity would have to play their part-time home games at Olympic Stadium.
The Tampa Bay Rays' recent fortunes have mirrored those of the old Expos in their later years — playing before oceans of empty seats in a sunless, concrete mausoleum that's ill-suited for baseball.
In 2018 and 2019, the Rays finished second-to-last in MLB attendance behind the Miami Marlins. The Rays finished dead last in the six years prior to that.