The battle to return an MLB franchise to Montreal has gotten a new level of support.
In order to show the extent of fan interest for a new Montreal Expos franchise, the website ExposNation.com launched a sample of potential season ticket pricing options for team games. It presented a wide range of ticket options and model prices available for fans to “purchase,” in attempt to indicate how much fans would be willing to invest in a new club in Montreal.
With a completely redesigned stadium and cleverly named seating sections, the tickets went up “for sale” earlier this week. Season ticket prices ranged from $15,000 in the “Gary Carter Club” to $3,900 in the “Le Grand Orange seating” (named after Expos legend Rusty Staub) and down to $890 in the “Vlad Stands” (in honour of the former slugger Vladimir Guerrero).
The results of the fake ticket sale were encouraging to Expos fans. In only one morning over 1,450 season ticket orders were placed, totalling close to 3,000 seats. At an average cost of $41.30 per ticket, this is almost $15 more than the average cost of a single ticket in the league.
By comparison the San Diego Padres sold just over 9,000 season tickets in four months for the 2011 season. This was just one year after they finished two games out of first place in the National League West division.
The cries for baseball to return to Montreal have been loud and resounding ever since the city lost the Expos. After the 2004 season the team moved to Washington and the franchise’s name was changed to the Nationals.
