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MLB Expansion: Montreal top expansion site for surveyed baseball fans

The survey did not ask about the possible time-split with the Rays

By Eric Garcia McKinley

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Welcome to SB Nation FanPulse, a survey of fans across MLB. Each week, we send 30 polls to plugged in fans from each team. Rockies fans, sign up HERE to join FanPulse.

This week’s catch-all FanPulse question that went to everyone, regardless of fandom, was about expansion: “To which city should MLB expand?” The options were Charlotte, Las Vegas, Montreal, Nashville, and Portland. The plurality of baseball fans who voted chose Montreal. Nashville, Portland, and Las Vegas received about the same percentage of votes, and Charlotte received the smallest percentage.

Unsurprisingly, one of the options was not “half the time in Montreal and the other half of the time somewhere else.” But, surprisingly, Major League Baseball has authorized the Tampa Bay Rays to explore a part-time move to Montreal that would do just that. This is according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. They’d play early season home games in Tampa Bay and late season home games in Montreal.

My first two questions about this potential arrangement are “what?” and “why?” The only way this makes sense is if it’s part of a slow transition for the Rays to move to Montreal full time. I don’t see any way something like this would work as a permanent arrangement. The Rays have enough trouble with attendance, and a good way to combat enthusiasm in an expansion city like Montreal is to say “they aren’t fully your team.”

Anyway, my third question is more interesting. What could this team be called? I submit that they be named the Montbay Exrays.

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In other FanPulse results, there’s more evidence that Rockies fans who signed up to take the weekly survey answer the question about confidence in the direction of the team based on the most recent game results. For instance, this week’s survey went out on Monday, after the Rockies wrapped up a four game series against the Padres that had two awful losses. Team confidence plummeted 30 percentage points, from 81% to 51%. It’s the lowest it’s been all season.

If you think that’s an anomaly, or if you have a different opinion, sign up for SB Nation’s FanPulse and participate.

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