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Message: [QUOTE="jncuse, post: 3979301, member: 1969"] 1. The French Sports Media never caused an issue with Expos like the Hockey media does with the Canadiens. In Hockey there are so many Quebec born players and coaches and it causes issues... in baeball there is a couple of players from Quebec so there is never that same pressure or demands. 2. The Schooling Issue is generally not an issue with athletes as they fall under the temporary residents rule. As to whether it will be a disaster. The big difference in sports now vs 1990s is how franchises across all sports have monopolized TV revenues. Now a successful franchise is much less gate driven. So It really depends on 1) the strength of local ownership (to build a new stadium and provide some stability on payroll and 2) the TV revenue. Local partnership group is what killed them in the early 1990's in combination with the craptastic stadium (which was made worse by the fact that the "Skydome" was seen as a wonder at the time, and a piece of the OLympic stadium exterior falling apart) I know that Stephen Bronfman seems to be in the front of the partnership to get the deal done. I personally have met Stephen on a few occasions in gatherings of passionate Expos fans. His passion for baseball would be as high as any owner in baseball. But how strong would that group be? The consortium of owners led by Brochu failed the fans, the city, and the team in the early 90's. That was in large part because Brochu was the front of the consortium and was not really that rich -- and the rest of the consortium was not willing to invest and said that Brochu was personally responsible for any future cash calls. Bronfman as the front would be much more effective than Brochu but is it rich enough? For the Expos to succeed I think they need BellMedia (owner of TSN) to become an investor in the franchise. We know that sports media properties have tremendous value right now. [B]But here is a big problem that can't be understated if it has not been resolved (and maybe it has been resolved). In the late 1980's the Blue Jays pulled a scummy move. At the time Expos games and Jays games were shown all across the country. The Blue Jays went to MLB and worked out a deal with the MLB office behind the Expos back, that shut the Expos out of the entire Canadian TV market west of Toronto -- the Expos received a small amount of compensation, There was only a limited number of games they were allowed to show nationally on TV after that. [/B]That was not as huge a deal at the time as the TV market was not monopolized like it is today. But TV revenues are huge today. If TSN were to become a primary/partner of investor I am sure they would want to be able to show all their games across Canada. Would Rogers allow that -- I think Toronto still has exclusive rights per that 1980s agreement to the full Canadian market west of Toronto and they will not give that right up cheaply. [/QUOTE]

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