"Nos Amours" no more

Tomorrow is likely the last day a Major League Baseball game will be played in Olympic Stadium, and that's sad. This canada.com story spells it out pretty well. Nobody seems to realize that this stadium used to be the loudest in all of baseball, and a real pride for the city. It's too bad that the 1994 strike killed that great Expos team, and the lack of quality since then killed the Montreal fanbase. They were passionate once.

And this is how it relates to us. A non-traditional market that once had some of the loudest fans in the league loses its franchise, largely because a strike damaged fan interest, and poor teams that can't compete are fielded hereafter. The national media and the league front offices have no memory of what the team once meant to the city, assuming it's a bad sports town, and not worth spending money to put a winner in. Eventually the team leaves, and few are truly sad. Does this sound familiar? That's us, guys. I hate to see the similarities, but I'm afraid the Nashville Predators could easily become the Montreal Expos of the NHL.