Pas de problème. Bronfman, Mitch Garber, Larry Rossy, Bell Media and even, yes, Pedro Martinez wants a piece of the action.First you need a team owner or ownership group with the financial means, business acumen and desire to bring back major league baseball. Montreal might have such a group, i.e. the group of potential investors led by Stephen Bronfman. Bronfman has the famous name but he doesn't have as much of a track record as the more famous members of his Montreal family. Still the Bronfman group is the one seemingly serious group of investors who are committed to the cause of bringing back the Expos. So they probably deserve our support.
Second, you need money, lots of it. Bringing back the Expos would require two huge investments: 1) the cost of acquiring a franchise (either by buying an existing one such as Oakland or Tampa Bay or by paying an expansion fee); and 2) the cost of building a stadium. Either cost by itself is very significant. Combine them and you are talking about a US $1-2B investment. How much money can the potential Bronfman group put together? I have no idea but they give the impression that the money is or will be there. On verra.
These peeps are loaded. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_Garber Larry Rossy is worth over a billion. He founded Dollarama and cashed it out to Bain Capital. And Bell is dealing with the fact that their arch rival, Rogers, has the national NHL contract and also owns the Blue Jays. Bell, of course, has their own RSN and very badly needs the programming that the Expos would give them.
They had it before when Bronfman Sr. owned the team. However, simply owning a MLB team is a profit-making proposition. The value of franchises is exploding. Teams are profitable before even putting an ass in the seats. Take a look at how many teams are no longer even trying to win. (Rays, Marlins, Tigers, Orioles, others.) They don't even need to sell tickets. They make money from revenue sharing (which the big market teams are starting to resent seeing the small markets pocket the dough), local and national broadcasting, and licensing. The Rays just signed an $83 million annual TV deal.Third, you need the support of both fans and businesses. I think the fan support is there though no one knows how deep it is. Is it deep enough to pay the very high ticket prices typically charged by major league teams these days? Is it deep enough to make the fans show up to support a losing team over the course of a long season? Is it deep enough to make some fans show up when the weather sucks for baseball, the way it often does until June rolls around? The modern economics of baseball also demand that businesses support a team by buying season tickets and renting luxury boxes. Would Montreal businesses do their part to support the team? Peut-être, je ne sais pas.
Seems that Ms. Plante has realized that it is politically beneficial to be a supporter of the Expos and was photographed this week wearing an Expo hat. She's totally on board with helping with land acquisition and tax abatement, but not with ballpark funding, which should come from the province anyway since they'll be the primary beneficiary of the income tax paid by the players. (Provincial income tax in Canada is higher than federal.)Fourth, you need political support. The city government, led by the mayor, and probably the provincial and federal governments must be on board too. I don't mean they must provide direct financial support for purchasing a team and/or building a stadium. Direct financial support is out of the question. However government officials, starting with the mayor, need to be willing to commit to paying some infrastructure costs (roads, land, utilities) associated with acquiring a site for and building a stadium. Government officials also need to be willing to battle NIMBY (Not in my back yard) opponents of stadium construction. It's inevitable that such NIMBY opposition will arise as soon an actual site is chosen.
Everyone seems to be on board with the Peel Basin. Ms. Mayor has been hipped to the fact that the area is close enough to downtown to be walked and also is ripe for much other development. The new light rail line to the south shore also has a planned stop at the ballpark site. I believe you linked to an article on this just above.Fifth, you need an appropriate site for a new stadium. The much discussed "Peel Basin" site is not perfect, but as Voltaire said "Le mieux est l'enemmi du bien." When I look at maps of the city and Google street views and review proposed plans, I agree that the Peel Basin is sill a possibility for a new stadium. Here are some interesting drawings of how a stadium could fit into this location: https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threads/montreal-new-baseball-stadium.20117/page-2