Could Blue Jays World Series run reignite talks in bringing back beloved franchise?

Hockey will be Canada's sport forever, but the Toronto Blue Jays have helped raise baseball's popularity in the country, evidenced by their World Series run in 2025. Coincidentally, an exposé on the Montreal Expos aired on Netflix at the end of October to rave reviews.

After the 2004 MLB season, the Expos left Canada and relocated to the District of Columbia, and were renamed the "Washington Nationals." For two decades, some have wondered when baseball would return to Montreal. Between the Blue Jays championship aspirations and the documentary "Who Killed the Montreal Expos?" maybe the time is right to bring back a beloved Canadian franchise.

Expos return would be big in Canada, especially with Blue Jays making the World Series

2025 may have been the start of a potential return of the Expos. The Tampa Bay Rays were playing their games at Steinbrenner Stadium due to Tropicana Field being damaged by Hurricane Milton in 2024. The Rays still averaged under 10,000 fans per game. While it is a minor league stadium, not selling out games consistently isn't a good thing either for the team's fan base, especially one that was struggling to get fans into their old building.

One solution could be to relocate the Rays to Montreal to bring back the Expos. Olympic Stadium is currently being renovated, which is expected to be completed by 2028. A fully renovated stadium in the future can be helpful for the city of Montreal to pitch the idea of bringing the Expos back and expanding baseball in Canada.

Whether the Blue Jays would want another team infringing on their market remains to be seen. Right now, Rogers has complete control over the baseball market in the entire country. Would they want to share in that potential ratings revenue if a second team is added? They have done a tremendous job marketing the Blue Jays as "Canada's team" and rightfully so, but having a second team in Canada would have to change that narrative.

On the positive side, if both teams are competitive and playing in the same division, they should see revenue gains at the gate when the two teams play each other. It's been over two decades since the Blue Jays and Expos played against each other and if the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens have proved anything, it's that a Toronto vs Montreal on ice (field) battle is always prime viewership.

This past August, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred discussed a potential idea of realigning the divisions, but if the Expos were to return, it would almost guarantee a division with the Blue Jays due to travel and the consistency of the two teams playing against each other in Canada.

The issue would be that the owners would have to find a television broadcast partner willing to go up against Rogers - or make some kind of deal with Rogers themselves to air the games and cut into potential Blue Jays broadcasts. The folks at Bell Media and specifically TSN may see dollar signs if they could get in and get the rights to a team and it's broadcasts, but at the moment it feels like a pipe dream, but only time will tell if MLB and anyone with deep enough pockets in Canada, start to put the pieces in motion.