On Monday, an article by 985fm reporter Jeremy Filosa detailed the plans of MLB and the future with two new expansion teams, since both the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays have concluded their renovation and moving processes.
The article suggests people around the hierarchy of MLB have interest in returning a team to Montreal after the Expos left for Washington to become the Nationals.
One official, off the record, said MLB sees the process of expansion starting between 12 and 18 months, which would mark the 2024 offseason.
The Toronto Blue Jays have been a very successful team with all of Canada behind them, and Montreal is the largest market for baseball without a team, so it's likely a top landing spot for any organization.
Can the Montreal Expos even become one of the expansion teams?
The main problem is that Montreal wants a local ownership group to own a possible Expos team and the old Olympic Stadium will not host the team as they would instead prefer a whole new stadium to be built.
It's unknown at this time whether or not Montreal will get a new team, but overall the city has turned more into a baseball city and has the ability to host a new baseball team.
But at the end of the day, it would take billions, and if they truly want a local ownership group it would lessen the chances of securing the billions it would cost to make a team.
MLB's problem is making an expansion team is quite expensive, as it would cost around $2 billion to $2.5 billion just in fees to allow them to join the league. They would also need to build a new stadium. The Athletic estimates the new Las Vegas stadium to cost around $1.5 billion. The Rays' will cost around $1.3 billion.
The Expos expansion team would cost around $2.25 billion in expansion fees; then they will also have to spend around $1.5 billion on the stadium, and other costs will accrue, costing them around $4 billion once the project is completed, unless they run into other problems, then it could go up to somewhere around $5 billion.
