A group in Montreal are pushing what they call “the Peanut Project” with the hopes of bringing the Montreal Expos back. The story started with a hockey game between the Habs and the Colorado Avalanche in January. Colorado was sporting the Quebec Nordiques colours, in an homage to their former locale. It was reliving the loss of the Nordiques that got Ashkan Karbasfrooshan thinking. “It kind of just hit me that, ‘Oh, you know, when you lose something, it’s really hard to get it back,’” he said. “I start to think about the Expos.” Karbasfrooshan is a graduate of Concordia University, and the founder of the internet video site Watch Mojo. He’s spearheading the peanut project, taking its name from the popular baseball snack. The group has already submitted prospective stadium sites to the city, including near Mels, between highways 10 and 15, by Ardent Mills, along the Lachine Canal, and where the Angrignon snow dump is. Karbasfrooshan is well aware that it’s not the first time there’s been talk of bringing the team back, including most recently from Montreal businessman Stephen Bronfman. “It was more of a real estate project that kind of attached this gimmick of the ballpark, let’s just be honest,” said Karbasfrooshan. The time for MLB expansion is coming up. A new collective bargaining agreement is about to be negotiated, and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred says he wants plans for two new teams in place by the time he retires in 2029. “I think it still works for Montreal,” said CJAD 800 Radio host Elias Makos. “We have 4.5 million people. We are by far the largest market in North America without baseball, so baseball would be stupid not to consider us for expansion.” Karbasfrooshan already has a group of investors in place, but there are still major questions, including what kind of ownership structure the league wants, and an uncertain economic future. The Expos joined Major League Baseball in 1969 and moved to Washington in 2004. “History would show that most cities that lose their baseball team eventually do get them back,” said Makos.
