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As a sports fan, baseball is on my list of favourites, but certainly not in the top three — mainly because I was barely into my teens when our beloved Expos bid adieu in 2004. Nevertheless, when it came time to choose a topic for my final research project for my master’s degree in sports management at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., I decided to investigate the viability of Montreal once again hosting a new or relocated Major League Baseball franchise.

Baseball’s revamped business model, coupled with current economic, demographic, and socio-cultural environments, make many of the reasons why Montreal originally lost its franchise irrelevant. The city should be a leading candidate to reacquire an MLB franchise, for several reasons.

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Market size: In order to sustain high attendance figures during the course of an 81-game home season, the size of the market is extremely important. Montreal is the largest city in Canada or the U.S. without an MLB team, and at just over 4 million people, the 15th-largest metropolitan area in North America. Moreover, Quebec’s population of 8.2 million, and Canada’s population of 35.5 million, provide a large television market capable of generating a lucrative broadcasting deal.