Could Expos return to Montreal?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by habfanman

Good god man, I almost fell off my chair laughing! You can't be serious, can you? These 3 cities do not belong in the same sentence. You may as well compare Vancouver with Rio and Barcelona. Hilarious!

And your long-winded defense of The Beer Store- one of the most inconvenient, overpriced, restrictive monopolies known to mankind..

Sorry, I have to catch my breath and change my underwear lol!

Oh, the comedy..

I think kool maudit was being sarcastic here. He was lampooning a certain Torontonian frame of mind that he perceives, and certainly wasn't defending it. Anyway, that's how I read it.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by blacktrojan3921

You know people if you want to talk about anything else BESIDES what this discussion is supposed to be about, you might have to consider making a new thread XD

It seems like you and a few others seem to think that a pie-in-the-sky idea from Rodger Brulotte about the Expos coming back is critical to the future of humanity to the point where an online forum thread about it getting sidetracked like this is a sacrilege. Oh well, that's life on Internet forum. If it displeases you, you always have the option of not reading it.

And those of us who are having fun here can carry on!

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by isaidso

The Quebecois/Quebeckers feel different from anglo-America, but from a European perspective it's tantamount to splitting hairs. (Mexicans feel different from anglo-America too.) .

Just as the differences between Sweden, Denmark and Norway, or Germany and Austria, or the U.S. and "English Canada", or between a whole bunch of other places, seem like "splitting hairs" to people outside those realities. What's the big deal?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by isaidso

Anglo-America isn't the template and non-anglo north Americans should stop feeling like they're outsiders on their own continent.

Agreed 100%. But the Anglo-American "template" (I like this term BTW) tends to be a bit of a steamroller...

[telyou]

Originally Posted by habfanman

I must respectfully say that you know not what you're talking about. Most of your posts would indicate such. This one is no different.

Please elaborate as these:
"Eh, it's not the largest literary festival in NA. Word on the Street is. And IFOA is still larger then Salon du Livre.
Maybe it had something to do with the fact they had the largest stadium? And the 2 knockout stage games they hosted had an average attendance of 43,000, far from being sold out."
are not opinions, they are facts.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by telyou

Please elaborate as these:
"Eh, it's not the largest literary festival in NA. Word on the Street is. And IFOA is still larger then Salon du Livre.
Maybe it had something to do with the fact they had the largest stadium? And the 2 knockout stage games they hosted had an average attendance of 43,000, far from being sold out."
are not opinions, they are facts.

The thing about the book fairs is demonstrably NOT a fact, as you would see if you had read this post:

Originally Posted by Acajack

One should always be wary when such and such a cultural thingy in Toronto or elsewhere in Canada is billed "Canada's largest". Sure, IFOA bills itself as the biggest, as does Word on the Street apparently. Salon du livre de Montréal also bills itself as the biggest in North America.

Truth is, especially on a cultural level, what happens in French is often ignored as being "Canadian".

But, getting back to the subject of literary fairs, given the info that is out there on the Net, it is difficult to imagine that either Word on the Street or IFOA could be bigger than the Salon du livre de Montréal.

Le Salon du livre de Montreal has close to 1000 authors present and around 1000 exhibitors.

Word on the Street has about 250 exhibitors - couldn't find numbers on authors. IFOA has between 125 and 150 authors present.

Even the Salon du livre de Québec in Quebec City appears to be bigger in number of authors and exhibitors, and the "salons" in Trois-Rivières and Gatineau are pretty big as well. For example, the one in Gatineau had 300 authors present last year.

As for the stadium, it is true that the U20 World Cup games in Montreal were played at Olympic Stadium, whereas in Toronto the games were at much smaller BMO Field. It is impossible to know whether attendance at Toronto would have been more, equal or less than in Montreal had they used Rogers Centre for the U20.

[Acajack]

Info on IFOA in Toronto:
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.c...=A1ARTA0012271

IFOA is part of the AUTHORS program, which apparently draws 80,000 people *a year* to its events, which includes the IFOA festival.

Le Salon du livre de Montréal draws 120,000 people in five days.

Gatineau's Salon du livre de l'Outaouais draws 35,000 visitors in five days in a metro of 1.2 million people, of which only 350,000-400,000 can be said to be literate in French.

Quebec City's Salon du livre draws close to 70,000 people every year, over five days as well.

Even Trois-Rivières (with about 150,000 people soaking wet) gets 15,000 people out to its Salon du livre.

Not to harp on this, but it is somewhat annoying to be force-fed braggadocio about how Toronto has the biggest, bestest, mostest, etc. of everything in Canada, and we are expected to swallow it without asking any questions "just because it's Toronto".

I wonder if people in Sao Paulo claim that their city's annual carnaval is bigger than Rio's?

[Gerrard]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I think kool maudit was being sarcastic here. He was lampooning a certain Torontonian frame of mind that he perceives, and certainly wasn't defending it. Anyway, that's how I read it.

What kool was saying was that Toronto's new self image as a liberal metropolis (in the vein of...) is rather self centred in that it doesn't give credit to other places in Canada where liberalism was ingrained well before Toronto decided to unloose the shackles of stodgy olde York. He's correct to a degree but also misses the fact that Toronto being Toronto tends to come at these things in a completely Toronto-centric way. As for the beer store he did caveat that the only people that would defend the Beer Store are of the "Christian lander mold" (a very small minority imho since I know no one who would ever defend it outside of a time traveler from 1950). I can't even defend the LCBO for the hours alone (especially once you've shopped at Total Wine for a few years).

BTW, CityTV broadcasts the Pride Parade each year (live), with penises and breast galore on display. Do they get complaints? Yes. But are they violating broadcast standards? No.

There's a tendency for certain people from a certain province who have moved to another province to discover a renewed sense of cultural chauvinism and know it all-ism regarding the province they have left without realizing the place they have moved from is an infinitely more complex place than they will ever give it credit for.

Finally, any thread that attracts habfanman to contribute more than one response is probably troll bait and at this point and closure would be the best course of action.

[Gerrard]

Word on the Street (Toronto) attracts about 200,000 visitors and is the largest book lovers fest in the country. So in that he was accurate. But I did see you left that part out of your response to uh, not appear wrong.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Gerrard

Word on the Street (Toronto) attracts about 200,000 visitors and is the largest book lovers fest in the country. So in that he was accurate. But I did see you left that part out of your response to uh, not appear wrong.

No, I left out Word on the Street because it is not the same as an indoor book fair. Events like Word on the Street tend to count all of the "amblers" (hope this is correct in English) who just happen to walk by on the street, in their visitor numbers. It is similar to the Les Bouquinistes du Saint-Laurent in Old Montreal, which claims to draw 750,000-850,000 visitors. Both events appear to be inspired by the Bouquinistes de la Seine tradition in Paris.

I did mention that Word on the Street, which is free, has around 250 exhibitors, which is a lot less than the Montreal and Quebec City "salons" (for which you have to pay admission BTW). Not sure about the number of exhibitors at the Bouquinistes in Montreal.

[telyou]

Originally Posted by Acajack

The thing about the book fairs is demonstrably NOT a fact, as you would see if you had read this post:

My mistake. Though leaving out WOTS just because it does not fit your bill is surely hilarious. And no, they do not count just anyone who passes by as a visitor.

Originally Posted by Acajack

As for the stadium, it is true that the U20 World Cup games in Montreal were played at Olympic Stadium, whereas in Toronto the games were at much smaller BMO Field. It is impossible to know whether attendance at Toronto would have been more, equal or less than in Montreal had they used Rogers Centre for the U20.

RC has hosted international soccer events in the past that reached over 40,000. Big woop. Both suck as soccer stadiums.

None of this changes the fact that the Expos never got any support.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by telyou

My mistake. Though leaving out WOTS just because it does not fit your bill is surely hilarious. And no, they do not count just anyone who passes by as a visitor.
.

Sorry, 250,000 is the total number of attendees across Canada, and includes attendance Toronto, Vancouver, Kitchener, Halifax and Saskatoon.

http://www.marketwire.com/press-rele...da-1333673.htm

Keep trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, people!

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by telyou

RC has hosted international soccer events in the past that reached over 40,000. Big woop. Both (Olympic Stadium and Rogers Centre) suck as soccer stadiums.

None of this changes the fact that the Expos never got any support.

Agree on both points.

[Acajack]

Funny how some people can't tell the difference between a free open air event in the middle of one of the busiest parts of downtown which tourists and passersby can freely amble into it, and another in a convention centre off the beaten path where you actually have to make an effort to get there, drive and park or take the metro, and pay your admission fee to get in...

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Agreed 100%. But the Anglo-American "template" (I like this term BTW) tends to be a bit of a steamroller...

I'll give you that, but we're not a homogenous continent and we need to recognize all of our parts as north American rather than an offshoot of some other continent.

[telyou]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Sorry, 250,000 is the total number of attendees across Canada, and includes attendance Toronto, Vancouver, Kitchener, Halifax and Saskatoon.

http://www.marketwire.com/press-rele...da-1333673.htm

Keep trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, people!

Again no,

200,000 is the Queens Park only attendance.
Keep up the ignorance Jack.

[Rico Rommheim]

book fairs?? who gives a shite?. Listen, every school child knows that Montreal is the only decent place in the universe ok? Even Tanya Kim knows this. Ok sure, its hot as hell here and we got no beaches and ok, the highways are falling down on our heads, but Ben Mulroney was born here and that's good enough for me.

[EastVanMark]

So.....how about them Expos?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by telyou

Again no,

200,000 is the Queens Park only attendance.
Keep up the ignorance Jack.

And yet the Bouquinistes in Montreal (also free, open air) claim attendance in the 750-850,000 range as I mentioned in a previous post above.

I guess I have to spell it out:

Salon du livre is comparable to IFOA (apples to apples)
Bouquinistes are comparable to Word on the Street (oranges to oranges)

Next up: our friends from Toronto will set out to prove that the Maple Leafs have actually won *more* Stanley Cups than the Montreal Canadiens!

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by isaidso

I'll give you that, but we're not a homogenous continent and we need to recognize all of our parts as north American rather than an offshoot of some other continent.

Look at this thread and you can see we have a long way to go just within Canada before we take it to the entire continent!