TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays are nearing an agreement that will bring them back to Montreal for a seventh year of exhibition games at Olympic Stadium next spring, according to an industry source.
Their previous deal with promoter Evenko expired after the pair of games this past March against the Milwaukee Brewers, which drew a combined crowd of 47,030. The opponent for next spring’s games wasn’t immediately known.
The recently released 2020 Blue Jays spring training schedule includes a three-day gap between their Grapefruit League finale March 22 against the Atlanta Braves, and their March 26 season opener at home versus the Boston Red Sox.
March 23-24 is the logical fit for the next Montreal games.
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The exhibitions, which started in 2014 when a pair of contests against the New York Mets at Olympic Stadium drew 96,350 fans, have been a rousing success, capturing the imagination of local investors, led by Stephen Bronfman, and Major League Baseball.
As interest grew each year, so too did Bronfman’s behind-the-scenes efforts to land another team for Montreal, which lost the Expos to Washington after the 2004 season.
During this year’s games, his efforts came to the public forefront with word that his group was targeting the Peel Basin area for a new ballpark and discussing a partnership with real estate developer Devimco.
Those efforts took another step forward in June when word emerged that Major League Baseball had granted the Tampa Bay Rays permission to explore the possibility of splitting its regular season between St. Petersburg, Fla., and Montreal, a process that’s ongoing.
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