Article content

Imagine if Mitch Garber had enough money to buy into the Expos in 1999, when American art-dealer Jeffrey Loria came along and purchased 24 per cent of the club for $18 million, became the managing general partner and eventually majority owner, paving the way for the franchise moving to Washington in 2005 to become the Nationals.

That’s something Montreal baseball fans might be wondering now.

“I had no money then,” Garber, now a successful businessman, said Monday in his Peel St. office. “It’s good hindsight, though. First of all, I wouldn’t have known that he’d be the kind of owner that he became, but I was so busy trying to figure out a way to make a living and create my path and raise my kids at that time that it didn’t occur to me.”

Garber is now part of a group of wealthy Montrealers — led by Stephen Bronfman — trying to bring the Expos back.

“This is the time for me to be involved because I’m in my mid-50s, I have some money,” said Garber, who struck it very rich after becoming CEO of Caesars Interactive Entertainment in 2009. “I really like the people involved. I really like Stephen Bronfman and Alain Bouchard and Eric Boyko and Stéphan Crétier and Pierre Boivin.”