The plan for a baseball club with shared custody between the cities of Montreal and Tampa is dead.
Posted at 12:23 p.m.
According to information obtained by The Press, also relayed by the Tampa Bay Times, the Major League Baseball Executive Committee opposes it. Tampa Bay Rays owner Stuart Sternberg meets with the media Thursday afternoon to provide an update on the case. The Montreal Baseball Group has not yet commented on the information.
Stephen Bronfman and his partners had been working on this concept of “sister cities” since at least 2016. It was the preferred scenario to ensure the return of a major league team to Montreal. The project was also backed by Tampa Bay Rays owner Stuart Sternberg and was endorsed by Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred just before the pandemic hit in February 2020.
“I am 100% convinced and, more importantly, the owners of the other teams have been convinced by [M. Sternberg] that’s the best way to keep a major league club in Tampa Bay,” Mr. Manfred said.
The “sister cities” plan called for the construction of two new baseball stadiums. One in the Tampa Bay area, funded by the club and local governments. The other in Peel Basin, in Montreal, on land largely owned by the Canada Lands Company, a federal government agency. The team was to start the season in Florida before moving to Quebec in June.
The Montreal Baseball Group had not yet announced how it intended to finance the acquisition of the land, nor the construction of the stadium. The Mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, had specified that the City would not invest in the construction of a new stadium. The Quebec government was in discussion with the consortium. But “if ever there is a baseball stadium,” Premier François Legault said in December, “it won’t cost Quebec taxpayers a penny. There is no question of our government putting a penny from the taxpayers into this”.
Stephen Bronfman had already closed the door on the idea of acquiring an expansion team, due to the high costs. “It would have been hardly realistic, even for me. In the United States, there are several businessmen who can spend 2 or 3 billion dollars to buy a team. […] But in Quebec, finding that money is a very big risk. I would have had to bear enormous stress. “, he had said to the Montreal Journal in the winter of 2020.
the Tampa Bay Times recalls that members of the Rays’ general staff had already “strongly implied” that the team was more likely to seek a move from Tampa if the Montreal deal fell through, rather than to try to stay in town permanently.
More details to come.