Can Expos Field A Competitive – let alone Winning

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“OK, but can Montréal actually compete?”

It’s the most common — and fairest — question I get (well, after “you’re not a billionaire, how can you pull it off? – previously answered. The TLDR answer is sports club valuations have mushroomed so much that no billionaire buys clubs anymore, it’s a combination of HNWI/Family Office and private equity funds and things are progressing very well less than 2 months after starting this exercise).

Even if MLB comes back to Montréal… Even if an ownership group is assembled… Even if a stadium gets built…

Can this team actually compete with the Dodgers, Yankees, Mets, etc.?

Short answer: yes. Longer answer: not the way people think (and not solely because success is fluid, subjective and relative)— but in the way modern baseball actually works.

From “impossible” to “improbable” to… plausible

Two months ago, this was dismissed as impossible.

Today, we’re closer to improbable but plausible, with:

a realistic path to submitting a compliant expansion proposal,
multiple engaged HNWI / Family Offices,
and growing institutional investor demand.

That arc — from “you’re crazy” to “wait… maybe” — is not new to me. I lived it building WatchMojo. Different industry, same pattern.

A slide from an early investor deck which I shared in my class on entrepreneurship at McGill to convey more funding does not lead to a higher chance of success. My investment was $250K in equity (savings) and $500K in debt, so not even $1M, making WatchMojo one of the most successful investments of all time.

Baseball has changed. The economics have changed even more.

Here’s the key misconception:

People still think MLB success is driven primarily by ticket sales and local market size.

That hasn’t been true for a long time.

Today:

Ticket sales are roughly one-third of revenue
Media rights, shared league revenues, sponsorships, and IP drive the majority of value
Scarcity, governance, and long-term appreciation matter more than single-season profits

This is why:

Tampa Bay competes
Cleveland competes
Milwaukee competes
Arizona has reached a World Series

Winning is no longer reserved for the biggest payroll alone.

Competitive ≠ reckless spending

The goal is not to “outspend” the Dodgers.

The goal is to:

build a predictable, disciplined payroll
maximize dollars that actually go to baseball ops
avoid waste elsewhere

That’s why structure matters.

If MLB eventually adopts a cap + floor system (as many owners are pushing for), competitive balance improves dramatically. Mid-market teams become structurally viable, not just lucky.

But even under the current system, a well-run Montréal club is viable — and competitive — if:

media and sponsorship are executed intelligently
the stadium experience drives premium demand
baseball ops are modern, analytical, and patient

Culture eats strategy for breakfast

I’ve spent 20 years watching this play out across industries.

You don’t win because of spreadsheets. You win because of:

leadership
incentives
clarity
patience
culture

Look at the Canadiens. Look at Tampa Bay baseball. Look at the Rays’ front office vs their payroll.

Winning organizations don’t chase headlines. They compound advantages quietly.

That’s the model.

Why Montréal is actually an advantage

Montréal is not a “small market” in the way people imagine.

It is:

globally recognizable
culturally magnetic
structurally undervalued
emotionally invested

A Montréal team is not just “Canada’s second team.” It’s a global brand with dormant equity.

Add:

modern streaming distribution
international fan acquisition
creator-driven storytelling
and new IP (our slate includes a handful of related projects – docs, films, content studios – which I have not even yet alluded to)

…and you’re no longer talking about a local baseball team.

You’re talking about a media-forward sports asset.

I don’t need this team to be profitable on Day One

This matters.

Unlike legacy owners:

I don’t need to extract short-term cash
I’m comfortable reinvesting
and I’ve built businesses where patience paid off

Profit optimization is an investor decision (and to be fair, this will not be my decision, but the ownership group’s). My focus is competitive integrity, culture, and long-term value creation.

But it’s not just the intangibles, in the Peanut Project’s 50-page executive summary (which has helped convert curiosity into interest, interest into intent, and ultimately, intent into action), I outline multiple scenarios (no cap, introduction of cap, etc) and benchmark the team’s potential income statement and especially if I can negotiate fair terms with investors, then the team will likely not outspend the Dodgers (duh), but have ample cash flow to field a competitive team. You also want to create an environment where athletes are drawn to – both the culture, but the entrepreneurship school angle as athletes don’t want to pursue coaching or broadcasting, but futures as investors and entrepreneurs.

Ironically, that’s usually how you end up with both wins and value.