Montreal Expos Endangered
Aug 29, 2001 | 12:42 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: AA Plt 2-million miler
Posts: 4,258
Montreal Expos Endangered
For baseball fans, primarily from Upstate New York and New England, who love to travel to Montreal to catch their favorite National League teams in action against the Expos:
In Montreal, Jack Todd writes on the Expos: "It's sad really, The team is down to what will almost certainly be its last 17 home games in Montreal. ... Baseball, already shaky in this city, is now through. The only thing that might conceivably bring it back is a new ballpark and if you still believe in that particular Field of Dreams, you really are a dreamer" (Montreal GAZETTE, 8/29)....
In Montreal, Jack Todd writes on the Expos: "It's sad really, The team is down to what will almost certainly be its last 17 home games in Montreal. ... Baseball, already shaky in this city, is now through. The only thing that might conceivably bring it back is a new ballpark and if you still believe in that particular Field of Dreams, you really are a dreamer" (Montreal GAZETTE, 8/29)....
Mar 1, 2002 | 1:00 am
#2
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Montreal / Detroit / Miami
Posts: 745
Most likely the last year of the Montreal Expos unless something really changes the situation. Buy some tickets and enjoy the experience.
"Tickets for individual Expos' games go on sale Thursday, March 1st, 2002, at Olympic Stadium wickets . . . and on the Web at Admission.com. Tickets are also available at all Admission outlets including points of sale throughout Quebec; Burlington, VT; and Plattsburgh, NY."
http://www.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mon/ti...eting_info.jsp
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"Tickets for individual Expos' games go on sale Thursday, March 1st, 2002, at Olympic Stadium wickets . . . and on the Web at Admission.com. Tickets are also available at all Admission outlets including points of sale throughout Quebec; Burlington, VT; and Plattsburgh, NY."
http://www.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mon/ti...eting_info.jsp
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Mar 1, 2002 | 11:11 pm
#3
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: HKG
Programs: CX DM, SQ, BA, TG, Sheba, VN, MPO since 1980
Posts: 1,058
-----------last I saw---------------------------------------------------------------------
Expos to play on FieldTurf - if they return
Montreal Gazette
Wednesday October 03, 2001
Stephanie Myles
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig and the owners vote on Tuesday to immediately contract the Expos, which is certainly possible but hardly certain, it will be a moot point.
But if they don't make that decision - and every delay will increase the likelihood of the club returning for 2002 - the Expos will play on brand-new FieldTurf at Olympic Stadium.
"We're all sitting on pins and needles," FieldTurf president John Gilman said yesterday. "We may have a turf in there; we'll know on Nov. 6."
The parameters of the deal are in place after a meeting between FieldTurf and Expos vice-president (development and stadium operations) Claude Delorme. Only some foot-dragging on the part of the Olympic Installations Board, which runs the stadium, kept the deal from already being done and the turf installed in time for the Nov. 25 Grey Cup.
The retail cost of the new-generation artificial turf - like the one used by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Tropicana Field and not the problematic one installed at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia - would normally be about $1 million. But FieldTurf will install it at Olympic Stadium basically in exchange for the value of the exposure it would receive from most of the Expos' 81 home games being broadcast in the U.S.
"We bought into the idea that we can get $300,000 to $500,000 worth of advertising from being on TV 81 times next year," said Gilman, who added that a big FieldTurf banner would be placed behind home plate.
It's not a money-making venture for FieldTurf, which installs 150 fields a year.
"But we think we could come out even, and we could provide a better surface at the stadium," Gilman said.
Multinational insurance company AIG and the NFL Quarterbacks Club, which counts Dan Marino, John Elway, Boomer Esiason and Warren Moon among its members, have purchased a 36-per-cent equity interest in FieldTurf.
With 18 full-time employees currently in Montreal, FieldTurf has the personnel available to install the carpet after Christmas. It would take 21/2 to three weeks to install, and the company can crank out the product at one of its manufacturing sites in three days, if necessary.
The OIB had concerns about the versatility of the turf, with one report claiming it would cost $500,000 to convert the surface for the annual Home Show, which is held on the stadium surface.
Gilman said his FieldTurf can stay where it is. If the OIB wants to cover it up, the plastic tarp needed costs 21 cents per square foot (about $25,000), which would allow the OIB to throw dirt on top of it for a super-motocross event or put down a hard floor for other events.
So, everything is in place to finally replace the 13-year-old AstroTurf at the Big O. The only question remaining is whether there will be a need for it.
Expos to play on FieldTurf - if they return
Montreal Gazette
Wednesday October 03, 2001
Stephanie Myles
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig and the owners vote on Tuesday to immediately contract the Expos, which is certainly possible but hardly certain, it will be a moot point.
But if they don't make that decision - and every delay will increase the likelihood of the club returning for 2002 - the Expos will play on brand-new FieldTurf at Olympic Stadium.
"We're all sitting on pins and needles," FieldTurf president John Gilman said yesterday. "We may have a turf in there; we'll know on Nov. 6."
The parameters of the deal are in place after a meeting between FieldTurf and Expos vice-president (development and stadium operations) Claude Delorme. Only some foot-dragging on the part of the Olympic Installations Board, which runs the stadium, kept the deal from already being done and the turf installed in time for the Nov. 25 Grey Cup.
The retail cost of the new-generation artificial turf - like the one used by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Tropicana Field and not the problematic one installed at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia - would normally be about $1 million. But FieldTurf will install it at Olympic Stadium basically in exchange for the value of the exposure it would receive from most of the Expos' 81 home games being broadcast in the U.S.
"We bought into the idea that we can get $300,000 to $500,000 worth of advertising from being on TV 81 times next year," said Gilman, who added that a big FieldTurf banner would be placed behind home plate.
It's not a money-making venture for FieldTurf, which installs 150 fields a year.
"But we think we could come out even, and we could provide a better surface at the stadium," Gilman said.
Multinational insurance company AIG and the NFL Quarterbacks Club, which counts Dan Marino, John Elway, Boomer Esiason and Warren Moon among its members, have purchased a 36-per-cent equity interest in FieldTurf.
With 18 full-time employees currently in Montreal, FieldTurf has the personnel available to install the carpet after Christmas. It would take 21/2 to three weeks to install, and the company can crank out the product at one of its manufacturing sites in three days, if necessary.
The OIB had concerns about the versatility of the turf, with one report claiming it would cost $500,000 to convert the surface for the annual Home Show, which is held on the stadium surface.
Gilman said his FieldTurf can stay where it is. If the OIB wants to cover it up, the plastic tarp needed costs 21 cents per square foot (about $25,000), which would allow the OIB to throw dirt on top of it for a super-motocross event or put down a hard floor for other events.
So, everything is in place to finally replace the 13-year-old AstroTurf at the Big O. The only question remaining is whether there will be a need for it.
Mar 6, 2002 | 10:08 pm
#4
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Montreal / Detroit / Miami
Posts: 745
The article you posted is dated 5 months ago 
The Montreal Expos are going to play this year. It will be their last year unless a financial package comes through.
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The Montreal Expos are going to play this year. It will be their last year unless a financial package comes through.
------------------
Got points ? Got smiles !
Mar 10, 2002 | 9:16 am
#5
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Kingston, Ont, the limestone city
Posts: 975
More taxpayer's $$$ to support multi-million salary of those players...
Who cares? Let them go.
Montrealers are still paying for the Olympic stadium, an event held in 1976. Let's look at this from another perspective.
They cannot stay because of $$$, tough, then.
Who cares? Let them go.
Montrealers are still paying for the Olympic stadium, an event held in 1976. Let's look at this from another perspective.
They cannot stay because of $$$, tough, then.
Mar 11, 2002 | 9:49 am
#6
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Montreal / Detroit / Miami
Posts: 745
Pardon me for the run-on sentence
While I have always had a desire for the success of my birth-town sports teams, and while I have enjoyed the playing of the Montreal Expos and have the highest possible admiration for former Expos manager Felipe Alou, I do have to say that if there is ANY city in North America that can survive without a pro-sports team it is Montreal, because the people there have a love of life and they don't need to wait for no one to tell them how to live.
They just go ahead and to what they do best: joie de vivre
The MTL Expos will be missed, but life will go on within 24 hours. While tears will be shed there too, other cities who lose a baseball team will also gain a long-term hole in the fabric of their lives. Not Montreal. They heal fast . . . on to Sainte-Catherine street . . .
------------------
Got points ? Got smiles !
While I have always had a desire for the success of my birth-town sports teams, and while I have enjoyed the playing of the Montreal Expos and have the highest possible admiration for former Expos manager Felipe Alou, I do have to say that if there is ANY city in North America that can survive without a pro-sports team it is Montreal, because the people there have a love of life and they don't need to wait for no one to tell them how to live.
They just go ahead and to what they do best: joie de vivre
The MTL Expos will be missed, but life will go on within 24 hours. While tears will be shed there too, other cities who lose a baseball team will also gain a long-term hole in the fabric of their lives. Not Montreal. They heal fast . . . on to Sainte-Catherine street . . .
------------------
Got points ? Got smiles !