Investors Attempt to Move Montreal Expos to Toronto

A last-minute pitch to buy the Montreal Expos and move them to Toronto is being attempted by a conglomerate of investors, Toronto businessman Jim Mills said.

“Money is no problem for us,” Mills told the Toronto Globe and Mail. “We’ve got $100 million and more set aside for this and we’re determined to do this. Our time is too valuable to waste on something we don’t consider serious.”

Expos owner Charles Bronfman has been attempting to sell the club to interests that would keep the National League baseball team in Montreal. Expos President Claude Brochu has been assembling an ownership group that would do just that.

When informed of Mills’ comments, Brochu said from Montreal: “Our group has come too far and I’m not interested in talking to anybody about this kind of issue. If people want to talk to us about being involved with ownership of the club here in Montreal, that’s a different story.”

Mills says his conglomerate includes investors from Canada, the United States and Japan.

Cooperation from the Toronto Blue Jays would be required to place a second major-league team in the city. Mills says his conglomerate would be able to satisfy the Blue Jays with monetary compensation.

Mills said he has approached Canadian authorities about the possibility of the Expos playing their home games at Exhibition Stadium, former home of the Blue Jays.

“We’re not trying to hurt the Blue Jays in any way,” Mills says. “We just think there’s room for both teams, similar to the way there are two teams in other cities.

“We happen to believe that National League baseball is better than American League baseball and we think the fans in southern Ontario would go for National League baseball.”