Proposed new Montreal park will be a ''community project''

Stephen Bronfman and Montreal mayor Valerie Plante met Tuesday to discuss a new baseball park south of downtown in the Peel Basin. Photo: Radio Canada

December 14, 2021

By Danny Gallagher

Canadian Baseball Network

Stephen Bronfman and Montreal mayor Valerie Plante met Tuesday to discuss a new baseball park south of downtown in the Peel Basin and apparently the meeting went smooth.

Bronfman, the son of former Expos majority owner Charles Bronfman, heads a group of investors under his Montreal Baseball Group umbrella seeking Major League Baseball's return to Montreal.

Mayor Plante wants Bronfman and his MBG to go public with the project so that Montreal citizens can make up their minds on their own.

Plante let it be known to Bronfman's group that she liked what she heard at the meeting but emphasized that she didn't want to be the one promoting the project. The promotion, she said, should come from MBG.

"It will not just be a stadium. It will be a community centre for Montreal,'' Bronfman told reporters Tuesday. "It will function 12 months a year. It's much more than just a stadium. It's not just a sports project, it's a community project.''

Bronfman's group is expected to present more details in January or early February. At this point, there has been no agreement on any kind of funding for the project from the city of Montreal, the province of Quebec and the federal government.

The baseball park is intended to be incorporated into a large scale, residential, commercial and retail complex that would include participation by Montreal-based developer Devimco, which has been designing and creating mixed-use living environments for more than 25 years.

Bronfman's group has been given the tentative go-ahead to have regular-season games played in Montreal in a share agreement with the Tampa Bay Rays, beginning in 2028, although this concept hasn't been approved by the Major League Baseball Players Association.

The share agreement, if implemented, would see Tampa Bay play half of its 81 home games in Montreal and that new parks would be built in both cities.