GENERAL: Much ado about Montreal

Montreal is an eclectic mix of French heritage and Canadian tradition that makes the city one of my favorite places to visit. Plus it's only a hop, skip, and a jump away from Albany, therefore making it cheaper than flying a plane somewhere.

Montreal is also one of the biggest and best sports cities in North America. Its tradition of winning is envied by a good majority of North American cities, particularly in hockey, where the Montreal Canadiens have won 24 Stanley Cups.

This is a story of three franchises, one being the Canadiens and the other two the Canadian Football League's Alouettes and Major League Baseball's Expos.

Chief owner Molson announced at the end of the 1999-2000 season that one of the most storied franchises in professional sports was going up for sale. By February 2001, the Canadiens thought they had found their new owner in American businessman George Gillett, who assured the fans that he would not move the team anywhere. After a few bumps in the road, most notably doubts that Gillett had the finances to buy out the franchise, the team was finally transferred into Gillett's hands thanks to some help from one of the main sponsors, Caisse de Depôt.

A day after Caisse de Depôt said they would help in the aiding of the sale Quebec premier Bernard Landry expressed his disappointment that no Canadian (read: Quebec) investors would express interest to buy the Canadiens. He also expressed to the provincial government that ice hockey has become a sport for "brutes" and an only reason why an American bought the Canadiens is because they "like the roughness of the game." At that point is where I lose respect for Landry.

Generalization of Americans #753: Americans like their hockey rough. Oh brother.

I can understand that more and more teams are taking a physical style of play as opposed to finesse. I would love to see Wayne Gretzky skating circles around defensemen again and although I never got to see him play, I'd love to see Maurice Richard in his prime. But the fact of the matter is that the way we see the game now (or as it is marketed in the NHL), hits are more fun to watch than goals scored. I love seeing hits, but I also love watching goals scored as well as incredible saves. I like studying what teams use what systems and how effective they are. I even follow hockey in Europe - which shows you how much of a fan I am of the game.

One element of a game does not a game make, Mr. Landry.

Now to a distinctively different game - the Expos have had issues with a new stadium for several seasons. First it was the botched deal with Labatt Brewery for a retractable roof stadium for the 2002 season. After Jeff Loria bought the team in 2000, there was increased hope for a stadium adjacent to the Molson Center in downtown Montreal. But with the continuing attendance drop and decreased interest in the ballclub, it looks like that possibility might never happen. Even with the news of getting English-speaking radio coverage, the club's future appears to be bleak in the city where Jackie Robinson started his baseball career.

There are a few entities to blame for the sudden rush for a new ballpark, one of them being Bud Selig. His 'new ballparks or else' demand has several teams, including the Expos, scrambling for space for a ballpark. The Expos have the land, they have the provincial and federal government's blessing. So what's the problem? It's not politics, but the fan base. Loria and son David Samson are working their tails off trying to get fans in the stands. Opening night attendance against the Mets was a solid 45,000+. Then the attendance eventually dwindled back down again, and on Sunday night's game against Houston attendance was 6,041.

What does this translate to? Are baseball fans that disillusioned from the 1994 strike-ending season that they decided not to go to any more games? Or are there simply better things to do in Montreal on weeknights during the summer? Whatever the case, something has to be done or baseball is no more in Montreal.

Last, but not least, are the Canadian Football League's Alouettes, who are the present pride of the city. The franchise was relocated to Montreal from Baltimore after the 1996 season. Though the experiment was failure in the United States, the CFL returned to Montreal for the first time since the Als first went belly-up in 1986. They had some very good seasons, including three seasons in a row in which they went to the Eastern Division final. After some failures in the final, the Alouettes finally advanced to the Grey Cup Final in 2000, only to lose in the final minutes to a Cinderella BC Lions team.

When the Alouettes moved from the tight confines of Memorial Stadium in Baltimore to the cavernous Olympic Stadium, the team felt like the Expos. Albeit a successful team on the field, the franchise wasn't doing so well in the stands. They only averaged between 10 and 15,000 fans per game and weren't pulling even in the books. In the middle of the 1999 season, the team moved from Olympic Stadium to Percival Molson Stadium at McGill University. From then on, the franchise has experienced a boom and as long as the team continues their winning ways, the house will be packed every night.

And that's where the problem starts. Since the end of the 1999 season, Alouettes president Larry Smith and owner Robert Wettenhall made their case to Montreal mayor Pierre Bourque (no relation to Ray of the NHL) for financial support to either expand Molson Stadium. Bourque played a hesitation game with the Alouettes because of the situation with the Expos and played a waiting game with them. Only recently did Bourque give his final answer when he approved the stadium expansion project. By 2002, the Alouettes will have a seat capacity of 24,500 with private boxes and improved structure to the concrete stands.

What took so long for the mayor of Montreal to approve this? You have a successful football team that's been a proven winner ever since they relocated to the city and you're just going to let the smallest stadium in the league be their confines? Mayor Bourque should have let the organization know of some sort of plans for the team a season or two ago. Thankfully, Olympic Stadium, not Molson Stadium, will host the Grey Cup this season - likely the first sporting event that will fill the Big O to capacity for the first time in quite a while.

With all the switching up and around the city of Montreal, it’s hard to keep up sometimes when it comes to professional sports. What of the Canadiens, Alouettes, and Expos? Stay tuned.