Who wants to take a stab at guessing Montreal's home attendance this year. You know, the team that is being run by MLB and where the people already know won't be playing next year. Keep in mind their attendance is always bad, anyway.

My Guess:

81 home games - total attendance 95,000

I'll say 58.

Not thousand.

Fifty-eight people.

Does that include the folks running the concession stands, and security?

Montreal may be the one place where you can walk up to the ticket window the day of the game and buy tickets to sit behind home plate.

from Joe in Philly:

"Montreal may be the one place where you can walk up to the ticket window the day of the game and buy tickets to sit behind home plate."

Wouldn't it be cheaper to get tickets for crappy seats and just move down? You wouldn't have any competition. Or did you mean you could buy tickets to be the catcher (could be a possibility in Montreal--after all, who would know?)

My guess for attendance is 205,000--that's less than 2600 per game.

~Adam

Montreal's scenario this year sounds like the premise of a film -- a la "Angels in the Outfield". I am sure there are several screenwiriters already working on it.

Wouldn't it be hysterical if the team actually started doing well?

Yeah, I know that's the stupidist thing anyone has ever said on this board - almost as dumb as the suggestion that Belurus would defeat Sweden in Olympic Hockey.

Oh yeah - the prediction - 654,321 (I have my sources).

I'm guessing 700,000. Perhaps there will be bigger attendance in the last few games if some want to wave goodbye to the Expos.

Okay, I'll guess: 669,465. And if there's some guarantee that there won't be a strike or lockout, who knows--maybe I'll be one of them.

No, Zeno and Joe, there's no way they're going to get that close to 1,000,000. For most of their home I games, I don't think they'll hit 1,000.

Someone will have to keep tabs on this important story, and post their attendance after each home game...or better yet, the announced attendance (which by baseball's rules is the number of tickets sold) as compared to the number who actually show up.

Hey! C’mon guys! Nobody likes schadenfreude! (Well, I guess some of you do.)

You know the ‘Spos are gonna fill the seats this year! They’ll be having a year-long close-out sale on all that old merchandise (Ex-pos Junk - THE collector’s items of 2052), Vlad Guerrerro will win the 2002 NL MVP (he’s beefed up again this winter!), and they’ll have their own built-in nightly blooper reel - Jose Canseco in leftfield! The New Bash Brothers! Expos take the East! Eat my jock, slimy Selig!

Oh, awright, I’ll be counting the flimsy fannies in the seats and report back to you. Hopefully I’ll have to take my shoes off to count ‘em. Attendance will be 516,514.

Btw, Adam, ya can’t just buy cheap tix and “move down.” I don’t think any stadium allows that, or everybody’d do it. I even tried it once - the Big Owe gestapo are MEAN s.o.b.’s! And Expos catcher Michael Barrett is just about the cutest player in MLB, and a great catcher in-the-making. Look him up.

So come on guys, stop slagging on the ‘Spos. You KNOW the REAL problem is MLB. Your team is next!

You can't officially buy cheap seats and move down...but after a while, around the 5th inning or so, you can figure out where there are enough empty seats that unless the ushers are really anal-retentive they won't stop you from sitting.

I think I need to make it up there for a game, if it's going to end up being their last season. If I knew for sure there'd be no strike or lockout, I'd start making plans.

[quote] unless the ushers are really anal-retentive they won't stop you from sitting.

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I told you, Joe, "Big Owe gestapo." I'm not kidding! But I'll treat you to a good seat... (in my best Mae West) "Ohhh, come up and see me sometime."

Phils @ Expos: May 24-26, July 15-16, Sept. 2-5.

I may take a bus or fly up just to spend a weekend there, catch an Expos game, and personally interview Javier Vazquez for his future stint with the Yankees (or Cardinals).

I feel bad for Frank Robinson, who has signed onto this awful situation for at least 162 games. Alou got out at the right time.

Seph: who knew the gestapo moved to Montreal and work as guards at the Stadium? For whatever it's worth, we usually move down at Dodger Stadium, if, for no other reason, to get out of the direct sun.

It always amazes me to think of the great talent that has passed through the Expos organization--only recently recalled that Randy Johnson was brought to the majors by them.

~Adam

A better question might be, "in what month will Congress strip MLB of Anti-Trust exemption when it becomes obvious that a league running a team as an also-ran constitutes market manipulation and collusion?"

OR......

Q. "What's the difference between Enron and MLB?"
A. Enron declared bankruptcy.

[quote]Originally posted by Seph:


I told you, Joe, "Big Owe gestapo." I'm not kidding! But I'll treat you to a good seat... (in my best Mae West) "Ohhh, come up and see me sometime."

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Ooooooooh....

AuTiger, I think that's a very good question. Having a team run in part by its opponents is just such an obvious conflict of interest. It's almost like having a commissioner whose daughter owns one of the teams. Oh, whoops...MLB does that too. Anybody else think this stuff should be illegal?