^

I'd wonder if the French Canadians would even care enough to come out, the Expos didn't even come close to a sell out in their final home game.

(12-29-2014 09:57 AM)Bull Wrote:  Let me set the record straight on the Astrodome... Yes admittedly it's vacant, and the interior currently reflects that... Every now and then reporters get inside for the 'shock' photos. But structurally the Astrodome is just fine. When it was constructed, (1965, the FIRST domed stadium!!!) it was considered an engineering marvel, and the 'eighth wonder of the world'. Rightfully so, most Houstonians felt quite a bit of pride in the Astrodome, which is the main reason it's still standing. It is on the National Registry of Historic Places. I believe the city is just waiting for the right proposal to repurpose the structure. There was a proposal on the last ballot for some kind of park-like open renovation, but it was a bit far-out and was narrowly rejected. Personally, I agreed with the result, was a bad concept. But notice it's still standing? Eventually the city will find the right renovation project and funding for a proper re-fit. From the exterior, it looks as good as the day the Astros last played there... No exterior signs of neglect. No comparison to the Detroit situation.

Granted, I hate seeing it empty... but money is tight. Anyone thinks this land is valuable, direct your eyes right across 610 where Astroworld was... that was 'valuable land' too, and it's still sitting empty.

My 2 cents...

(12-29-2014 10:03 AM)Pony94 Wrote:  Astroworld sold for $42.8 million and is expensive dirt now

That was an excuse to tear down Astroworld. The real reason, in my opinion, is controversial and I won't steer the conversation that way other than to slightly nudge at it a bit and say that gang members scared the suburban folks away. There's more to it but I'll let it at that.

They don't know how to tear things down in Detroit. Heck the old Packard plant has been vacant for 60 years. That place is massive and has a maze of underground tunnels that connect all the buildings, talk about creepy.

(12-29-2014 08:55 PM)THE NC Herd Fan Wrote:  They don't know how to tear things down in Detroit. Heck the old Packard plant has been vacant for 60 years. That place is massive and has a maze of underground tunnels that connect all the buildings, talk about creepy.

It takes a lot of money to tear things down.

There was a plan to auction off the Detroit Institute of Art holdings which are valued in the billions as a way to get the city out of debt. The Art museum fought the plan successfully.

(12-29-2014 04:05 PM)Love and Honor Wrote:  I would venture to guess that they're still holding onto the hope that they get a pro baseball team back in Montreal and they use the Big O as a temporary venue.

Who can say what the future holds, but that seems very hard to believe, IMHO.

I think the lords of the realm in MLB felt very embittered by the Expos. Year after year, decade after decade, the people of Montréal and Québec made it painfully, embarrassingly obvious that they just didn't give a sh*t about baseball. At least, not in sufficient #s to keep a MLB franchise going.

The old Montréal Royals of the International League (affiliated with the Brooklyn Dodgers for a while; Jackie Robinson played for them in 1946) were popular, but they played in a much smaller venue than Olympic Park.

(01-01-2015 02:57 PM)Native Georgian Wrote:  

(12-29-2014 04:05 PM)Love and Honor Wrote:  I would venture to guess that they're still holding onto the hope that they get a pro baseball team back in Montreal and they use the Big O as a temporary venue.

Who can say what the future holds, but that seems very hard to believe, IMHO.

I think the lords of the realm in MLB felt very embittered by the Expos. Year after year, decade after decade, the people of Montréal and Québec made it painfully, embarrassingly obvious that they just didn't give a sh*t about baseball. At least, not in sufficient #s to keep a MLB franchise going.

The old Montréal Royals of the International League (affiliated with the Brooklyn Dodgers for a while; Jackie Robinson played for them in 1946) were popular, but they played in a much smaller venue than Olympic Park.

The cultural situation in Canada where you have the Toronto/English dominated section of the country and the Montreal/French speaking part of the country was likely more extreme back in 1977.

Therefore in made since for the MLB to have both Toronto and Montreal in the league. Toronto in the American League and Montreal in the National to help with interest across the MLB.

Unfortunately, outside of hockey Toronto has been the only market where US pro sports have been sustainable. Chalk it up to market size, proximity to the US, US workers living abroad ect.

(01-01-2015 02:57 PM)Native Georgian Wrote:  I think the lords of the realm in MLB felt very embittered by the Expos. Year after year, decade after decade, the people of Montréal and Québec made it painfully, embarrassingly obvious that they just didn't give a sh*t about baseball. At least, not in sufficient #s to keep a MLB franchise going.

It may be irrelevant to the thread overall, but I would beg to differ about Montreal. The Expos had some of the best attendance in the MLB when they were good in the 80's, they outdrew teams like the Yankees and Cardinals when they had players like Andre Dawson and Gary Carter. The 1994 strike, the awful stadium, and the consistent losing killed their fan base, I'd be willing to bet that a new Expos team would do pretty well if they had a new ballpark.

I doubt it. Montreal is the most Anglophone area of Quebec I'm educated guessing but it's still a very different culture. Like someone said, besides Toronto, the only place where an American sport besides hockey (which if we're being technical, is Canadian) would work would be somewhere like Vancouver or somewhere in Ontario far enough from Toronto but close enough to Detroit and/or Buffalo such as Windsor or especially Hamilton. Yeah, Vancouver lost the Grizzlies but had they remained and become good, I'd bet they'd be doing just fine today.

(01-01-2015 03:56 PM)Love and Honor Wrote:  

(01-01-2015 02:57 PM)Native Georgian Wrote:  I think the lords of the realm in MLB felt very embittered by the Expos. Year after year, decade after decade, the people of Montréal and Québec made it painfully, embarrassingly obvious that they just didn't give a sh*t about baseball. At least, not in sufficient #s to keep a MLB franchise going.

It may be irrelevant to the thread overall, but I would beg to differ about Montreal. The Expos had some of the best attendance in the MLB when they were good in the 80's, they outdrew teams like the Yankees and Cardinals when they had players like Andre Dawson and Gary Carter. The 1994 strike, the awful stadium, and the consistent losing killed their fan base, I'd be willing to bet that a new Expos team would do pretty well if they had a new ballpark.

Unfortunately I think Montreal is on the wrong side of history to get another team because of the decline of Quebec economically. Those were some great Expo teams and of course baseball overall was a bigger cultural force 30 years ago.

Expansion usually begins and ends with hot markets. That is why all these southern cities have picked up pro sports. Columbus got the NHL to come in, not Cincinnati or Cleveland. They are the growing market in Ohio.

NHL is talking about another Toronto area team over going back to Quebec City. Franchises are following the money.