The Montreal Expos

[mattynokes]

I hate relocation. As Andy and I have discussed, it's good to keep brand recognition for prospective GMs. However, this is the one relocation that I'd be fine with (Tampa or Florida moving to Montreal) as it's a relatively new franchise without deep history moving to a historic team.

So, I'm fine with having Montreal. However, it's a big kick in the teeth to teams who have moved to the suburbs and/or built a new stadium to achieve a better budget and to give Montreal any sort of a discount when they didn't have that same luxury. In the end, that's what this is. A move to acquire a better budget.

I also do not understand the per capita income hike. At 18,700 it's still an increase in budget for Tampa/Montreal. The region population going from 4.39M in Tampa to 7.56M in Montreal is what drives the better budget, even with that low per capita income.

As of the 2071 Opening Day Tampa ranked 24th in budget at $86.4M. Had they been in Montreal (at 18.7K per capita) they would have ranked 20th in budget at $95.3M. That right there seems like enough of an incentive to move out of Tampa. Now, if they were give the revised 22,500 per capita (which Parma, OH is still lower) it would take them to being ranked 15th in budget at $104.7M.

If we want to make a baseline per capita income, fine. But raising Montreal's is just giving Tampa/Montreal an even larger budget increase simply for the sake of doing so.

If we want to only make Tampa/Montreal pay 50%, then fine. But any team that has moved to the suburbs should been giving some percentage of their money back as they too were trying to increase their budget and weren't given this sweet of a deal.