Why the team is the catalyst — but the city is the beneficiary

When people debate the return of the Montreal Expos, the conversation often gets stuck on nostalgia, attendance figures, or whether baseball “still matters.” That framing misses the point.

The real question is not whether a baseball team can succeed in Montreal.
The question is what a privately financed stadium and a broader 4C civic project would mean for the city, its economy, and its long-term competitiveness — with or without baseball.

Because in this case, the team is not the destination.
It is the catalyst.

What follows is a grounded, conservative look at the economic, employment, and civic impact of a modern MLB franchise embedded within a mixed-use, privately funded district.

1. Job Creation: Construction, Operations, and the Civic Multiplier

Construction Phase (4–6 years)

Large-scale stadium and district projects consistently generate substantial employment before the first game is ever played.

  • 16,000 to 25,000 jobs during construction
  • Trades, engineering, architecture, project management, materials, logistics
  • Local supply chains benefit disproportionately

These are not abstract figures. Comparable North American projects of similar scale routinely produce employment in this range, particularly when development is phased and multi-use.

Permanent Employment (Post-completion)

Once operational, the combined effect of:

  • the team
  • the stadium
  • the surrounding 4C district (commercial, cultural, and community uses)

creates between:

  • 7,000 and 11,000 permanent jobs

These include:

  • stadium and team staff
  • hospitality and tourism
  • retail and food services
  • building operations and security
  • cultural, event, and programming roles

Crucially, these are year-round jobs, not seasonal ones.

2. Annual Economic Activity: Recurring, Not One-Off

A modern MLB franchise integrated into a mixed-use district does not generate economic impact only on game days.

Based on conservative modeling:

  • $800 million to $1.2 billion in annual recurring economic activity

This includes:

  • direct spending (tickets, concessions, events)
  • indirect spending (hotels, restaurants, transport)
  • induced effects (wages spent locally)

Over a 15–20 year horizon, this translates into:

  • $15 to $25+ billion in cumulative economic impact

This is why cities that get this right stop debating whether the team “pays for itself.” The district does.

3. Public Sector Revenues: Without Public Funding

One of the most misunderstood aspects of projects like this is the role of government.

In the proposed model:

  • No public funding is required for the team or stadium

Yet governments still benefit materially through:

  • income taxes
  • GST/TVQ
  • property and land value uplift
  • tourism-related revenues

Once stabilized, annual public revenues are estimated at:

  • $200 million to $400 million per year

This is the paradox policymakers often overlook:

The absence of public funding does not mean the absence of public benefit.

4. Tourism and Global Visibility

Montreal already excels at tourism. A flagship sports-and-culture district amplifies that advantage.

Expected impact:

  • 300,000 to 500,000 incremental visitors per year
  • Higher average spend per visitor
  • Extension of tourism beyond peak summer months

Add to that:

  • national and international MLB broadcasts
  • All-Star Games, postseason games, global baseball events

The result is not just tourism volume, but tourism quality.

5. Urban Transformation and Land Value

The most durable impact of the 4C project is spatial.

Comparable North American developments consistently show:

  • 2x to 4x land value appreciation over 10–15 years
  • Transformation of underutilized or transitional zones
  • Creation of walkable, mixed-use destinations

In Montreal’s context, this would represent:

  • the largest civic transformation since Expo ’67
  • a generational reorientation of how the city uses and values its land

This is not about gentrification for its own sake.
It is about productive density.

6. Why the Team Still Matters

If the district is so powerful, why does the team matter?

Because:

  • the team creates rhythm
  • the team creates narrative
  • the team creates inevitability

The Expos would:

  • anchor the district emotionally
  • provide recurring global visibility
  • accelerate everything else by years, not months

The team is the spark.
The city is the engine.

7. The Strategic Takeaway

This is not a sports vanity project.
It is not nostalgia economics.
And it is not a gamble.

It is a long-term civic investment whose returns accrue broadly:

  • to workers
  • to local businesses
  • to governments
  • to Montreal’s global relevance

With the Expos, Montreal accelerates into its next chapter.
Without them, the city still moves forward — but more slowly, and with less cohesion.

The real question, then, is not whether baseball belongs in Montreal.

It is whether Montreal is willing to think at the scale its talent, culture, and history justify.