Announcement about the return of the Montreal Expos to be made this fall

Sources close to Cult MTL confirmed today that an announcement about the return of the Montreal Expos will be made in October or November. The announcement could be coming during or closely following the municipal election in Montreal.

This morning, the Journal de Montréal reported that an announcement about a shared baseball team between Montreal and Tampa Bay — “the marriage of the Expos and the Rays, who would sometimes play in Tampa, sometimes in Montreal” — is expected to follow an upcoming meeting in Florida.

This comes in light of ongoing negotiations about a new stadium in the Peel Basin between Stephen Bronfman’s company Claridge and the Quebec government. Yesterday Quebec’s Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon confirmed that high-level discussions about bringing baseball back to Montreal are ongoing. “The government is ready to do something,” he said. “Will it be enough for Mr. Bronfman is still to be determined.”

According to the same report, Michel Leblanc of the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal has been building bridges with Tampa Bay, including discussing the establishment of a shared baseball team.

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