Get rid of the Montreal Expos

The 1980s were to be the decade of the Montreal Expos.

Boasting an incredible line-up that included Gary Carter, Andre Dawson and Steve Rodgers, the folks in Canada looked forward to a dynasty and thumbing their noses at American baseball fans.

"Baseball does belong north of the border" was often heard.

Perhaps it does -- witness the back-to-back Toronto Blue Jays' titles.

However, the Expos own one division championship (in the split season of 1981) and nothing more.

The moribund franchise, owned by the league itself, and on a strict budget, staggers on as the joke of baseball.

A Saturday flea market draws more people than an Expos' homestand.

Oh sure, they come out when the team is gunning for a wild card spot, but there are no "Expo faithful" to speak of.

This season saw the usual late season swan dive and the fans retreated.

Montreal has always been a hockey town and with the Habs attempting to rise from the dead with new GM Bob Gainey, excitement is building after several poor seasons.

The Canadian Football League's Montreal Alouettes have sold out every game since abandoning the Big Owe and moving to the cozy confines at McGill University.

The Expos have struggled at the box office for almost twenty years, the team barely tickling the consciousness of the city.

An individual visiting the city was wearing an Expo t-shirt in the downtown core a few years ago and was asked by a local why he was wearing such a loser shirt.

Some feel the team would be on stronger footing if the 1994 season had not been cut short.

That year the Expos were the best team in baseball and a World Series berth looked likely.

The strike killed the season and Montreal's hopes.

It is doubtful even a championship would help the team in the end; baseball just isn't that big in Quebec.

The place to be for sports in Montreal has always been at a Canadiens game, it has never been trendy to be seen at the Olympic Stadium.

As a big fan, Canadian actor Donald Sutherland used to always attend the Expos' home opener, now he can't be bothered.

Olympic Stadium also is a joke.

Designed for the 1976 Olympics by Parisian architect Roger Taillibert, the stadium was not completed on time due to a strike by construction workers.

Only a skeleton five months before the opening ceremonies, the bulk of the structure was quickly slapped together to avoid major international embarrassment.

Since the Olympics must be played outdoors, the roof was going to be the first retractable one ever.

Instead, we got an odd looking stadium with a big hole on top.

The stadium even offers tours.

Just imagine the words of the tour guide: "If you look up, you'll see what was supposed to be the support structure for the world's first retractable roof-but now it serves as an observation deck. Over here we have the crumbling concrete support beams, please don't stand too close."

For over a decade, an afternoon game featured a sunny pitcher's mound, while the batter stood in the shade.

As the game wore on, the shadows crept across the stadium and led to all sorts of difficulties for the players.

The 556-foot-high leaning tower used to retract the roof stood half finished until 1987 when the roof was finally completed.

It took another two years before the roof, made from orange Kevlar and weighing 50 tons, became retractable.

Problems opening and closing the roof led to its permanent closure.

The look from inside reminded one of the closing scenes in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," when the mother ship makes its appearance on the mountain, its lights flashing everywhere.

When the sun was shining, rays of light would filter through from the mother ship and an alien abduction was near.

In the spring of 1998, the orange Kevlar roof was removed and a $26 million opaque blue roof replaced it for 1999.

The new roof does not open and another slightly ethereal, other-worldly look adorns the ceiling... nothing like a day game in the dark with the lights on.

The stadium's total cost has well exceeded $1 billion and Quebec smokers pay an additional cigarette tax to cover cost overruns.

A spectator at an Expos' game quickly notices the eroding concrete (a large chunk fell a few years ago-thankfully the stadium was empty), the sparse and quiet crowd, and terrible acoustics.

Several ticket windows remain closed for walkup traffic since they are not needed and scalpers go bankrupt.

If you ever want to sit in the front row at a baseball game, go to the Big Mausoleum-purchase a cheap seat and move down, the ushers don't care.

Once a player hones his skills in Montreal, he signs with another team or is traded during the annual fire sale when major talent is given up for minor league players.

The Expos cannot even afford the usual contingent of September call-ups that expand the roster.

There has talk of building a downtown stadium in hopes of bringing the fans back.

It wouldn't.

A new stadium would inevitably drain more money from the taxpayer and the novelty of another new ballpark would soon wear off.

The Expos have been on life support for too long with no hope of recovery.

It is time for Major League Baseball to pull the plug on the Expos and move the team into a new home somewhere in America for 2004.