Whenever I have a small issue at home — plumbing, electrical, you name it — my instinct is always, “Well… we gotta blow up the whole house now.” Meanwhile, professionals show up and fix it in fifteen minutes. As Nate Bargatze might say: some of us just aren’t built for drywall.

I was actually relieved to see MLB commissioner tell the Montreal Gazette’s Harry North “no comment.” That’s all I wanted: for him and his lieutenants to know that there now is this new option in Montreal, after the previous group’s attempt to split the season with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays failed, but that while that “chapter died,” a new page is turned over, and you are reading it. A proper team with the right bilingual servant leader who partners with the league, plays a full schedule (and not a split season sideshow as part of some other endeavour) in the right baseball stadium reflecting Montréal’s joie de vivre.

Let’s also just say that even in the event that MLB were to somehow get back to me, I would probably not say so publicly (unless they explicitly ask me to do, doubtful) and just keep my head down and explore this opportunity through the right lens: personal & professional, Montreal/Quebec & the larger civic scope (4C project) I’ve now envisioned. Frankly, my life & business partner will decide when said and done as it is a commitment from me that may be unreasonable to her! The simple thing is the status-quo; the sane thing would be to merely partner with a new PE fund specialized in pro sports teams, run an RFP process; but principles and purpose would suggest the third path.

In the spirit of Liam Neeson’s famous monologue from Taken, while I don’t have billions or know every fan personally, I do have “a very particular set of skills… skills acquired over a very long career… skills that make me uniquely suited for certain mandates.” And when thousands of Expos and Nordiques fans asked me to look into the future of pro sports in Quebec, it became clear that this combination of nature (Montreal roots, Taarof management) and nurture (media, strategy, diplomacy, technology, and storytelling) has conditioned me exactly for this moment.

When you realize that there’s an expansion process with its own steps & a timeline, for entrepreneurs like me who see something and build where nothing exists, it’s almost refreshing.

However, given these are long shots:
1- Expos < 1% when started, but now, different; while
2- Nordiques is < 0.1% but not impossible just realistically
a) on a much longer timeline
b) involving convincing the right people &
c) proper framing to the league – more to come soon),
for my own sanity and yours (the fans), let’s treat this as the first case study of The Academy of the School of Entrepreneurship that I have wanted to set up (the first class will be the class I taught at McGill in 2022: From Concept to Reality and the theme is captured here: which starts with finding one’s course to success but ends with finding your path to happiness). In fact, before WatchMojo, I wrote one of the first sports business columns & while at the radio station, I hosted a SportCents before it was in vogue. This is the kind of thing I have covered all my life, only now I can do more than write about it.

To make it happen, since I have a full-time job at WatchMojo, this foreshadows my long term plans: it’ll serve as a “Radically Transparent” showcase of the first official consulting mandate of Granicus Consulting, the first M&A review under Granicus Advisory Services, all future divisions I one day was going to contemplate pursuing, under the Granicus Group holding company I created in 2003 & family office set up after WatchMojo’s 2020 recapitalization which brought on a NY-based private equity firm into our cap table. The Granicus river marked Alexander the Great’s (on whom I wrote my second book on) first excursion into Asia Minor – representing a point of no return – before going on a 12-year journey conquering the then known world. But MLB is not some village Alexander the Great shows up to, which he can through sheer willpower conquer, this is more an exercise in diplomacy and finesse – which actually suit my disposition better.

So while yes, via WatchMojo I have my own preferences as controlling shareholder who has the board seats to make the call, even minority shareholders have their own rights & vetoes – so as WatchMojo explores its own strategic options, then this gives the fans – through these vehicles including Granicus – the best path forward to structure deals to make this concept become reality.

To serve Investors, you have to think like one

As I am an investor, as well, as an entrepreneur, then I will also present this to my important shareholder stakeholders as such: I am honoring my fiduciary duty to you in exploring the highest return asset class, that of sports franchises while finding a place for the large private equity class to flow to:

Because of the massive benefit to other stakeholders than myself and my company, it is surprisingly emancipating to really unshackle myself from any insecurities & concern for optics (greed, ego, vanity, etc) and just make it happen for the benefit of others.

The dual exploration of the Expos (MLB) and the Nordiques (NHL) will serve as a real-time educational project on strategy, governance, economics, negotiation, and civic vision. And — if the stars align — it will hopefully lead to Granicus Sports & Entertainment’s first sports franchise investment – with WatchMojo playing any role that makes sense for it (follow up article: the model, vision and roadmap).

Let’s just agree on one thing. While I control the inputs, I do not control the output, the end result and outcome. And here’s the paradox: I can help solve this… but I cannot do it alone (the government has to support this even if for the Expos we do not need public funds for the team and stadium).

Bringing back the Expos — and shaping the largest civic project in Montreal since Expo ’67 — requires patience, process, and partnership, especially with government. The proposed stadium and franchise model would not require public money, yet the civic district around it would redefine Montreal’s economic, cultural, and urban trajectory for the next 50–100 years. With it, Montreal in 2035 and 2050 becomes a more dynamic, thriving, globally relevant city. Without it, we risk stagnation and a continued drift toward irrelevance.

This is, proverbially speaking, the project my entire career has prepared me for. But unlike most challenges I tackle, this one demands patience — something I don’t naturally have.

When you realize that there’s an expansion process with its own steps & a timeline, for entrepreneurs like me who see something and build where nothing exists, it’s almost refreshing.

That said, to manage both my expectations and everyone else’s, I’ll treat this as a structured, transparent learning journey through Granicus Group and The Academy – because storytelling is everything.

Next, I’ll outline the process, the timeline, and the path forward — not as hype, but as context, clarity, and education. Here, I simply wanted to show how this vision and action plan came to be, frame the mandate correctly so we can all embark on this exploration with the right mindset.

More to come.