How Montreal Expos Draw Close to 3 Million Fans

Assuming that the crowdfunded, Montreal Expos open in their new ‘Estadio Felipe Alou’ in April, 2020 – four short years from now - here are several steps that we can take in order to ensure that the target of 2.5 million fans is achieved every year in the 38,000 seat stadium.

First, let me remind you that Montreal has been historically a bandwagon city when it comes to baseball. Equity crowdfunding - whereby a large number of the 60,000 shareholders would be expected to buy season tickets – is the only way to combat the bandwagon mentality. A handful of rich owners or a glitzy new stadium grudgingly paid with our tax dollars can do nothing about this ‘only going if they’re good’ reasoning, but if you own the team and have a stake in it as well as the stadium, then you are certainly more likely to want to attend most, if not all, home games.

As written here previously, the team will be equity crowdfunded by 60,000 individuals. The window to buy into the purchase of the stadium, then the MLB franchise, will be first opened to people who live within 100 km of the stadium. Why? Because these new MLB owners will be most likely the ones to buy season tickets so that they can watch their ‘employees’ perform on the field; and to take delight and pride in the state-of-the-art stadium that they helped to build. That 100 km distance would include Champlain, New York and of course the greater metropolitan area of Montreal – not just the island of Montreal – with a population of 4 million.

The 1st category would also include a limited number of purchases, perhaps 500, available to prospective investors of C$10,000 each in the Dominican Republic. (For more on this, see my article ‘The Power of Us’ which discusses the Expos’ international brand.)

A week later, the distance would be 300 km and include Burlington, VT; Ottawa and Quebec City. This second phase would also include anyone in the province of Quebec. These shareholders are more likely to attend a weekend series rather than most home games – especially those during the week – but they are still strong candidates to buy season tickets and surrender to the Expos’ official resale site the tickets for weekday games that they don’t attend.

The 3rd week of the sale in shares would include anyone, anywhere in the world with a maximum of C$10,000 to invest in the stadium, then thereafter they would have the same opportunity to buy into the MLB franchise once approved by Major League Baseball. The focus would be on Canada and the US. The likelihood would be that Canadians would buy any remaining balance of shares in the stadium due to the advance promotion work regarding the RRSP benefits of buying into the stadium and the MLB franchise. That body of Canadian shareholders would also help boost the ratings for nationally televised baseball games in Canada as these owners, though far from Montreal, would want to watch ‘their product’ on TV or online. There is a significant number of Expos fans across Canada who would buy shares for sentimental reasons – especially those 45 and older - who grew up on the Expos prior to the Blue Jays coming into the MLB in 1976.

If you have ever purchased season tickets, as an individual or an owner of a company, you know the pain of receiving that annual invoice and having to immediately pay thousands of dollars for the whole season, several months prior to the first pitch being thrown. In most big league sports, partial payments are not allowed. The idea here would be to let Expos season ticket holders have the option to pay on a bi-weekly, monthly or quarterly basis for their season tickets. Since it is expected that the majority of season ticket holders will be typical, middle-class, family types rather than corporations, a bi-weekly option would help ease the pain of a $5k to $10k annual investment that has to be paid in 1 lump sum. However, to ensure that the club has sufficient operating income for their opening in spring 2020, partial payments for the 2020 season would have to begin by at least February 2019.

As a former season ticket holder for the NY Yankees from 1996 until 1998, I have been witness to the gouging that owners can inflict upon loyal season ticket holders once the team has won it all or just become a hot ticket, as the Yankees were in 1996 when they won the World Series after many miserable seasons. As a small business owner in New York, I cancelled the season tickets when it no longer made good business sense to continue to buy season tickets for my preferred clients.

Conversely, The Montreal Expos would write into the club’s constitution that the increases in ticket prices would be set to the annual rate of inflation from the previous calendar year – to a maximum of the inflation rate of the previous 10 years which presently would be less than 2%. This would give potential season ticket subscribers confidence that long-term they could afford to invest - not only emotionally, but also financially - in the Montreal Expos. As well, moderate price increases would ensure that many of the fans were children with their families - not just clients of local corporations.

Additionally, all food and drink vendors would have to follow the same standards as above. Not only would their prices have to be no greater than 10% higher than what they would sell the same item for at their local restaurant in the city, but they could not increase prices more than the rate of inflation as stated above.

There would be a healthy mix of chain-type food vendors as well as various, independent restaurants – of diverse ethnic varieties - chosen for their popularity in our wonderful city.

Since the Montreal Expos Baseball Club would not be controlled or beholden to any beer companies, we could get authorization from the SAQ, the liquor board in Quebec, to import our own product should we so desire. For example, ‘Presidente Beer’ from the Dominican Republic would be an interesting, novel option; or premium tap beer such as Guinness. However, it would be preferable if Molson’s or another local brewery were to become that foreign beer company’s Canadian distributor (if they are not already) as we would not want to alienate a local provider of jobs and sponsorship.

In order to attract consistently 2.5 million fans or more per year, the stadium would need to be ‘the place’ to be seen. Music to be played within the stadium during the game would have to be a large part of what makes the atmosphere. A lot of that music should be Latin in the form of salsa, merengue and bachata, not only because it is fun, inoffensive and danceable, but because it is neither French nor English. As well, a good percentage of the club will be made up of Latino baseball players who would feel very much at home and welcomed listening to their native music; and it would sensitize visitors from rural areas to other cultures and music. In the past, the music in Olympic Stadium was predictable, tired and with no appeal to younger people attending the games.

Free concerts to ticket holders could also follow games to generate money and increase attendance. In fact, concerts can be held during the summer months when the team is on the road in order to generate further income for the 60,000 shareholders of the stadium.

A ‘Fan Zone’ can be built outside the Griffintown stadium, at the Peel Basin beside the Lachine Canal, where fans can gather, party and make new friends prior to each home game.

An organ, a staple of ‘old-time baseball’, would also be necessary along with local celebrities singing ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame’ during the 7th inning stretch.

MLB has too often in the past scheduled games whereby the Expos were on the road during important holidays, early in the season, when it is imperative to attract non-season ticket holders to the stadium:  so often the club was away from Montreal and in the US on St-Jean Baptiste and Canada Day holidays when there are no such holidays south of the border.

The scheduling also has to ensure that the club is at home during the Jazz Festival and the Formula 1 race in order to further attract more tourists to the games who might not have ever seen a baseball game:  this will produce not only converts to the Montreal Expos but also to Major League Baseball itself in its push to go beyond North American borders. Every summer, the city is teeming with visitors from Europe, South America and Asia.

A marketing effort to schools – especially those in upstate New York, Vermont, Maritimes and eastern Ontario – would need to be made in order to reclaim those markets. The Expos could promote school trips to Montreal and Quebec City for 2 or 3 days. An easy target would be French classes in those schools. The Expos could give tickets to those students for free as a loss leader or donation but perhaps even with assistance to defray the cost of the tickets from Tourism Quebec, Tourism Montreal and Tourism Canada since those students would be spending money and paying taxes on food, drink and hotel rooms while here. Clearly, those children will drag their parents back to Montreal that same season or next for a game.

The American parents of any child that has no US Passport; and must order a US Passport for their child in order to go on his or her school trip to Montreal and see the Expos would receive a 50% discount on future Expos tickets up to the cost of that passport.

Radio broadcasts again in those markets above would certainly follow as those same children who visited Montreal would hopefully attach themselves to the Expos’ brand. Those visits would produce life-long Expos fans and greater ticket sales.

Since the club would emphasize the importance of the family experience in so far as fair, family-oriented ticket and concession prices, the significance of day games – especially on weekends and holidays – is vital to ticket sales:  after a long Montreal winter, there could be no greater pleasure than sitting outside and watching a ball game, the sun warming your skin, with a view of downtown Montreal, Mont Royal or the St-Lawrence River in the background.

Games that end at 10:30 pm are far too late for young children and they would have lost interest in the game by the 2nd inning. As well, visitors coming from an hour or two away have no desire to drive unfamiliar roads at midnight, especially when fatigue sets in. They simply will not come for a night game unless they’re sleeping over in a hotel – and many cannot afford that option.

Finally, the stadium - perhaps with solar-powered, heated seats - needs to be a tourist attraction and a must-see venue for all baseball lovers across the continent. It must be built with a very long-term vision and quality products so that future modifications are few but easily applied. The views of the city, the mountain and the waterfront – from every angle in the stadium - must leave a lasting impression on every visitor – local or tourist – so that an imprint of our great city and that game’s experience is a lasting and positive one which they will want to repeat several times every baseball season, with new and old friends alike.

‘Estadio Felipe Alou’ must be built with the concept that it will become a baseball shrine so that we all shall profit – not only the original 60,000 shareholders who built it!