Former Expo Warren Cromartie has assembled a professional team to determine the feasibility of a return of Major League Baseball to Montreal.
The feasibility and survey study will be undertaken by Cromartie’s group, Montreal Baseball Project, as well as Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal (BTMM), Ernst & Young and BCF LLP.
“I am pleased to see that the idea of bringing Major League Baseball back to Montreal is taken seriously by a group of talented business people who are dedicated to the city’s economic development,” said Cromartie. “I would like to thank the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal for mobilizing the business community,” he added.
“We want to determine if Quebec’s largest city has the necessary conditions to welcome back a Major League Baseball team,” said Michel Leblanc, President and CEO of the BTMM. “Step by step, we are exploring the possibility and we expect to have the results of the feasibility study by the end of 2013.”
The BTMM, which is acting as a facilitator for the study, is providing 50% of the funding, while the other half is provided by a group of individuals in the business community.
“This is just the next stage in a journey I started on a year ago,” Cromartie said. “We have to take this one step at a time, knowing that this will take some time to accomplish. But let me make this clear: Montreal is a baseball town and it always will be a baseball town. We are looking forward to bringing a Major League franchise back.”
Right now there is no professional baseball in Montreal — which is simply inexcusable. There’s a rich history of pro baseball in Montreal, dating back to the early days of the International League and including both the Expos and a season spent by Jackie Robinson as a Montreal Royal before joining the Brooklyn Dodgers.
RELATED STORIES: Cromartie laying groundwork for return of MLB to Montreal; Conference board: Montreal can support MLB; More MLB dreams in Montreal; Montreal capable of supporting MLB — if there’s an owner with deep pockets
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