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“There’s not even a direct link between FIFA and the Olympic Stadium roof,” Filato added. “The reason why they’re doing the retractable roof is because it’s a long-term investment because it’s required by more and more associations now to hold large sporting events. So it’s symbolic because we gave our (World Cup) candidacy, now it’s in Montreal, so it seems to be an investment that’s directly for soccer. Of course it’s going to benefit (soccer) but it’s going to benefit the city of Montreal to get the FIFA World Cup. But there’s no direct link between the sports.”

Filato added that the money being spent to fix up Olympic Stadium for the World Cup doesn’t mean there’s no possibility of a new downtown baseball stadium if the Expos were to return. The cost of building a new downtown ball park has been estimated at around $500 million and Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred has made it clear that if Montreal is going to get a team again there needs to be a plan in place for a new stadium, stating last November: “We’re not going to play in Olympic Stadium.”