Speculation about old Children's Hospital has baseball fans dreaming
Montreal baseball fans hoping for the return of major league baseball were teased once again on Monday, when developer Luc Poirier suggested the old Children's Hospital property could become a baseball stadium.
- LISTEN: Former Expos player Warren Cromartie on CBC Montreal's Daybreak at 7:20 a.m. Tuesday
Poirier's winning-bid made him the owner of the sprawling former Montreal Children's Hospital, which he mentioned could conceivably be turned into a ballpark.
Some fans thought it would be possible — though a little tight on space.
Others felt the property at the corner of René-Lévesque Boulevard and Atwater Street would be far too small.
But one man who has devoted long hours for the return of the Expos was not convinced the site would work.
"Personally, I think it's a little too small," said Warren Cromartie, a former Montreal Expo who has led the Montreal Baseball Project, which aims to bring major league baseball to the city.
"It's a great area, one of the first areas I lived in when I played for the Expos, it certainly has all the subway transportation with the highway and some places like that, but it's too small," he told CBC from his Florida home.
Sports journalist Jonah Keri, who has written extensively about the Expos, echoed those sentiments.
"It's a really small site. It's a cool location, obviously, if they could pull that off. But my sense is that is a pretty small and difficult site."
On CBC Montreal's Facebook page, reaction appeared split, though one commenter suggested the proximity to downtown would make it work.
"A baseball stadium has to be downtown if it is to work in Montreal. And while parking is important, I think being close to the Metro is even more important — so it looks like a win-win, here," wrote Tim Leighton on CBC Montreal's Facebook page.
