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Toronto Blue Jays to play preseason games at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium

neate sager

Even Community's Britta Perry could read the room well enough not to pour cold water on the optimism of Montreal Expos loyalists might have after getting this bit of news. Realistically, Montreal might only serve the same purpose to Major League Baseball that Los Angeles does to the NFL, that Seattle does to the NBA and that its neighbour Quebec City does to the NHL. It's the city an owner drops hints about moving to during the shakedown for a new publicly funded arena or stadium.

If Major League Baseball is ever to return to Montreal, though, it has to start somewhere; it's just that there's plenty of populist support but scarcely little capital. Ultimately, having the Toronto Blue Jays come to Montreal in the spring of 2014 is a small step toward renewing support to return a MLB team to the city which had one eight years before the Jays came along.

From Shi Davidi:

The contests, to be held right at the end of the pre-season, will bring big-league baseball back to the Big O for the first time since the Expos left for Washington after the 2004 season.

Hosting games in Montreal makes sense under the Blue Jays’ strategy of building a country-wide fan-base. (Sportsnet)

Make no mistake, this is purely a marketing exercise for the Jays. It's a nice dream to have, though. About 1,000 Expos fans livened up a Blue Jays game earlier this summer against the Tampa Bay Rays, which as a small-market team with a fecund player development system and a poorly located domed stadium, are the Expos' spiritual descendant.

A Conference Board of Canada report released in 2011 stated, "An MLB team in Montréal would be highly appealing for the right media group. Such a group could be a competitor to Rogers, which owns the Toronto Blue Jays." The only such mythical beast out there is Videotron, which would probably prefer landing a NHL team for Quebec City. Plus it's not clear whether such a team would be competitive or just be a content generator like the Jays, one of the few corporate-owned MLB teams.

Every major market that lost its team in the second half of the 20th century — Kansas City, Milwaukee, Seattle, Washington, D.C. (twice), New York on the National League side — got it back eventually. Ultimately, a couple ball games at the Big O is at least a nostalgia trip, and a way to show Montreal the sport hasn't forgotten its rich contribution to the grand old game.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet. Please address any questions, comments or concerns to btnblog@yahoo.ca.