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In the last few years, there were between 5-6000 fans who would actuallyDoc Halladay said:Definately the Nords. They were my fav team and the Avs currently are.
It's a shame what happened in Montreal. The strike really killed that franchise (Bud Selig finished it off). The Expos were 34 games over .500 in 1994 with the best record in baseball, almost undoubtably on their way to winning the NL pennant and possibly the World Series before the strike.
Look at these attendance figures. They were pretty crappy to begin with but they were at least improving until 1994.
1991 - 11,612
1992 - 20,607
1993 - 20,265
1994 - 22,390
Strike
1995 - 18,189
1996 - 19,959
1997 - 18,489
1998 - 11,295
1999 - 9,540
2000 - 11,435
2001 - 7,935
By then they started playing some of their games in I believe Puerto Rico along with Montreal. 20,000 avg. attendance is awful but dipping below 10k is downright brutal. The strike killed what little momentum this team had.
That's definately true. There's a number of factors that led to the downfall of that franchise. The strike and lack of fans were probably the leading cause along with the Loria's and Selig. Also not to mention the absolute dump of a stadium they had to play in. It was definately not a good baseball venue and was made worse when the retractable roof became not so retractable anymore.Taller said:In the last few years, there were between 5-6000 fans who would actually
pay the $$ to watch a game in Montreal. Official attendance rose strictly
because of the Puerto Rican games. And there didn't even sign a contract
for English language television broadcasts. At that rate no team can possibly
survive in the professionals. I remember one game when only 2500 brave
people showed up. It is tempting to say the strike killed the team, but I
think if people are honest, it was the fans (or lack therein) who killed it.
One can only go on blaming the strike for so many years before you realise
there simply was not the fan base for a pro team. I was so sad to watch
it happen, as I was a big Expo fan back when they were a new team.