Shortly after Jeffery Loria took over the Montreal Expos, plans were announced for a new ballpark in downtown Montreal. For the Expos' entire tenure in Montreal they had played in the "upgraded" Jarry Park and the cavernous Olympic Stadium. The plan called for a unique baseball only stadium. Unlike most of the new parks which opened in the late 90's, the new park would have a steel skin rather than brick.
Oddly, the announcement of the stadium came complete with the park's name Labatt Park. The park would be located within the "downtown" area of Montreal and was slated to have an incredible skyline view.
Unfortunately, the Expos were not able to get a financing deal in place and Labatt Park never came to be. The Expos were sold to MLB in a strange three team transaction where Loria came to own the Marlins and the Marlins owners bought the Red Sox.
The rest was history. After a few years in Montreal under MLB control, the Expos were moved to Washington D.C. and became the Nationals. Oddly enough, in 2008 the Nationals opened their new ballpark which has a steel exterior which is very similar to the proposed Labatt Park design.
You can see these and more images of Labatt Park at StadiumPage.com.
Technically the "Labatt Park" name was announced by the pre-Loria controlled Expo group, with the first (brick clad) design in 98 or 99. And then they continued to use it with the Loria groups renderings.
ReplyDeleteAlso cool comparison to Nationals Park.
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