Report: Peel Basin south of downtown would be site for Montreal’s ballpark
Olympic Stadium was the most recent home of Major League Baseball in Montreal. Photo Credit: SABR
By Danny Gallagher
Canadian Baseball Network
Slowly but surely, the return of Major League Baseball to Montreal gets more interesting.
The Montreal ownership group headed by Stephen Bronfman and Mitch Garber have decided on land in the Peel Basin located about 20 walking minutes southwest of downtown Montreal as the site for a proposed new ballpark, according to Jeremy Filosa, a reporter for Montreal radio station 98.5 FM.
William Jegher, an assistant to Bronfman's group, declined comment today on Filosa’s report.
Filosa said Pierre Boivin, the president and CEO of Claridge Group, a company controlled by the Bronfman family, registered himself as a lobbyist so that he can approach the provincial government to have its support to go ahead and negotiate with the federal government’s Canada Lands Company which owns 75% of the acreage in Point St. Charles where the proposed park would be built.
"The Peel Basin has always been a primary location for the Bronfman group,'' Filosa said in an interview with CBN. "In my opinion, lobbyism is just a formality. The feeling I have is that the provincial government is already on board.''
Montreal's La Presse newspaper followed up Filosa’s report by revealing today the proposed land contains 900,000 acres and is worth about $50-million. Filosa said any purchase of such land from the feds would be nominal for a small fee.
“That would be the federal government’s contribution to the project,’’ Filosa said. "About 350,000 acres are necessary to build a stadium and the rest would be for development around the park. The City of Montreal has first right of refusal on the land.''
It’s expected that the next step to making it more plausible for the Peel Basin site to be functioning properly for fans would be the construction of a subway/train stop.
“That train stop would be north or south of the basin or at the basin,’’ Filosa told me. “The subway will be unveiled in the next couple of weeks and months. They are already working on it.’’
Filosa, like Bronfman, Garber and fans alike, is waiting for any news from commissioner Rob Manfred about expansion or possible relocation of a team such as Tampa Bay Rays. Without any direction from the commissioner’s office, Bronfman and Garber have no plans whatsoever to start building a new park.
“There is zero chance they would start building a park. They’re not going to make the same mistake they made in Quebec City,’’ Filosa said, in referring to an NHL-calibre arena constructed in 2015.