Article content

There was a soirée at the Old Port Tuesday night to celebrate the Expos’ 50th birthday, a remarkable achievement for a team that went on life support following the players’ strike in 1994 and died in 2004 with Major League Baseball’s decision to relocate the franchise to Washington, D.C.

While the focus on the past with team founder Charles Bronfman, former players Andre Dawson, Steve Rogers and Claude Raymond and announcer Dave Van Horne at the head table, it was inevitable that folks were thinking about the future.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Pat Hickey: Stephen Bronfman targets Peel Basin for baseball stadium Back to video

While there has been ongoing chatter about the return of baseball to Montreal, Stephen Bronfman, who has been one of the point people in the bid to bring baseball back, offered a tantalizing tease when he was asked about a timeline for the game’s return to Montreal.

Photo by Pierre Obendrauf / Montreal Gazette

He announced that his investment firm, Claridge, and real estate developer Devimco have agreed on the development of a baseball stadium in the Peel Basin area, where his group wants to build a new stadium for a potential MLB team. Bronfman noted that Devimco would purchase the land from the Canada Lands Company and Claridge would act as a financial partner for the approximately 950,000-square-foot development.