Leader of Group Trying to Bring Rays to Montreal to Attend AL Wild Card Game

Is the return of Major League Baseball to Quebec close at hand? The Tampa Bay Rays ditching their decrepit convention center they like to call a baseball stadium for Olympic Stadium in Montreal feels like a long shot, but a new wrinkle in this story is taking shape tonight.

Charlie Morton and the Rays will be taking on Sean Manaea and the Oakland Athletics in the AL Wild Card, and Stephen Bronfman, the leader of a Montreal-based group looking to move the team from Tampa Bay, will be in attendance.

Given Tampa Bay's supremely lackluster attendance numbers at Tropicana Field despite a competitive team, which is due at least in part to the venue's location in St. Petersburg rather than, say, downtown Tampa, ownership actually discussed splitting home games between the Trop and Montreal. (Apparently, they've overlooked the fact that no one would by season tickets at full price for half the games.)

Montreal has been without a team since 2004, when the Expos relocated to Washington and became the Nationals amid their own declining attendance. Still, Canada has been thirsting for another team to go along with the Blue Jays up north, and the only team who could conceivably join them up north at the moment would be Tampa Bay.

Rays fans, however, don't seem too thrilled about potentially losing their team to Canada.

Most teams who relocate are bottom-feeders that can't draw a crowd, but if even the promise of October baseball can't bring fans to the Trop, ownership's hands could be forced in due time.