Montreal focuses on hockey and sees a future in soccer, but how does it compare to other popular North American sports?
Montreal has its fair share of sports teams, from hockey to soccer. But, for many North American sports fans, the city fails to live up to the promise of neighbouring sports leagues.
While Montreal has the biggest National Hockey League (NHL) franchise in Canada, a Canadian Football League (CFL) team, and a Major League Soccer (MLS) team, it lags in every other major North American sport. Without a National Basketball Association (NBA) or Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise, Montreal sports fans and athletes are left to cheer for teams outside their home city.
Once the proud home of the Montreal Expos, the first MLB team based in Canada, the city lost the franchise when it moved to Washington in 2004 after financial struggles and ownership issues.
Since then, Montreal has not housed an MLB team, making it the largest North American city without a franchise. Meanwhile, the Toronto Blue Jays are going strong.
Many have advocated for a revival of professional baseball in Montreal, with projects such as Project Baseball Montreal, founded by ex-Expos player Warren Cromartie.
Despite these efforts and a decade-long campaign, Rob Manfred, commissioner of MLB, shut the door on the subject in 2022.
“I have no doubt that this concept could be interesting in the future world of professional sports, but baseball is not ready to take this step currently,” Manfred explained in a press conference back in January 2022.
Gaspard Beaudoin, a Montreal-raised sports fan and Concordia student, said that politics have played a massive role in prohibiting Montreal from being back in the baseball scene.
“Denis Coderre built and revamped many baseball fields in Montreal parks when he was mayor, aiming to bring a baseball team back to Montreal,” said Beaudoin. “The issue is that baseball is definitely a declining sport in the city. We still have a strong base, and a lot of people advocate for baseball to come back, but the majority of people just don’t care much about the sport.”
As for basketball, Montreal has never had an official NBA franchise, although it got close a few decades ago. In 1995, both Toronto and Vancouver received teams, and the Toronto Raptors still exist today. At the time, the NBA considered giving a team to Montreal as part of its goal to grow basketball in Canada. However, the city never received a team due to a smaller market and insufficient infrastructure.
Jordan Telfort, a second-year Concordia Stingers basketball player, believes infrastructure continues to be a major barrier for basketball in Montreal.
“I feel like [Montreal is] not as developed as we could be just by the lack of facilities for basketball players,” said Telfort.
According to him, an NBA team could help resolve some issues.
“We produce a lot more NBA prospects and NCAA players now than ever,” he said, “but I don’t know if the fans would match the energy that other teams have, like the Raptors or the Clippers with their new arena.”
The lack of an NBA franchise in Montreal has not stopped the sport from growing in popularity. The hype around the 2019 NBA champion Toronto Raptors helped fuel interest in basketball across Canada, especially in Montreal.
The city has produced notable players, like Chris Boucher, who currently plays for the Toronto Raptors. It has also hosted eight preseason games at the Bell Centre since 2012, which have all seen sellouts of over 20,000 fans.
Today, basketball and baseball must compete with the NHL, MLS, and the CFL. While Montreal could likely support one additional major sports team, sustaining both an MLB and NBA franchise would require a substantial population and financial base to ensure steady attendance and revenue. Additionally, those franchises would require ongoing economic support from sponsors and high-spending fans, resources that Montreal may not be able to provide consistently.
