Jacques Menard, chairman of the team owners' group hoping to build the C$250 million ($165 million) stadium near Montreal's downtown core, told reporters on Tuesday the group was doing everything it could to keep the National League franchise in the city.
"The owners of the Expos and the public are not quitters. We don't throw in the towel," Menard told reporters.
After a special meeting of the owners' group,that did not include team president and 7 percent stakeholder Claude Brochu, the club's corporate investors said they would press on with plans to improve the franchise's capitalisation, perhaps by bringing in new financial partners.
That would dilute the owners' shareholding, but would help cover losses over the next three years and make it more palatable for reluctant local governments to invest in the stadium project.
Expos supporters say the new stadium is key to keeping the Expos in Montreal as it would provide better financial footing for the beleaguered team. Over the last two decades, the Expos have been playing before ever dwindling crowds at the Olympic Stadium, a C$1.1 billion ($725 million) venue built for the 1976 Summer Olympics.
Fans and critics say the Olympic Stadium is too cavernous and too far from the city centre to attract enough baseball fans. The new, open-air and smaller stadium would feature a more intimate setting and corporate boxes that have become a staple of new ballparks built in the United States.
The new ballpark would be just steps from the Molson Centre, the new hockey arena built and financed by Molson Cos., the Toronto-based owner of the Canadiens National Hockey League franchise.
Faced with a losing season on and off the field, rumours have been circulating that the Expos will be sold and moved to the United States. The speculation picked up on the weekend when team manager Felipe Alou said Expos management had told him he was free to look for another job even though his current contract runs through next year.
Reuters
