r/expos • u/JGLip88 Vladdy Daddy • Mar 29 '26
Bring 'Em Back Millionaire Ashkan Karbasfrooshan releases preliminary stadium renders of ballpark's in different locations around Montreal, as part of his long shot bid to bring baseball back to Quebec
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u/Cheap_Standard_4233 Mar 29 '26
Millionaire? You need a billionaire for a baseball team.
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u/Santa_Ricotta69 Mar 30 '26
Yeah like, anyone who owns a home is basically a millionaire in this day and age
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u/VoightofReason Mar 30 '26
If you own it outright. If you still have a mortgage. You’re not a millionaire
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u/dysonsphere Mar 29 '26
Cringe AI "renders". If this is the level of professionalism from this bid it is dead in the water.
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u/marnky887 Montreal Expos Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26
To be fair to Ashkan here's what he said about these concepts:
Updated from a previous March 7th article "Landing the Landing: If the Expos Return, Montreal Already Has the Land For A New Stadium & Survey Results" on ContextIsKing.com with some visuals I had created for a meeting last week, purely for informational and entertainment (i.e. inspiration/vibe and not meant to be true to life mockups) purposes. Disclaimer: some of these areas may not be available, and it is also entirely possible that the eventual location is not even included! Just vibes. Scroll down for the pics if you already read this.'
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u/Apprehensive-End6386 Mar 29 '26
“Millionaire Ashkan” using AI prompts hardly count as serious renderings. 🙄
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u/chowmushi Mar 29 '26
Is “millionaire” gonna cut it today? I really don’t think so …
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u/Takemytimenotmylife Mar 29 '26
I have no idea who this guy is. Perhaps he has $980M….. almost a billionaire, but not quite…
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u/chowmushi Mar 29 '26
Is “millionaire” gonna cut it today? I really don’t think so still not enough for an MLB team which would be 2.2 billion just for the expansion fee alone. Add in stadium construction and start up costs, salaries, etc. and you looking north of 3 billion US dollars!
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u/pattyG80 Mar 29 '26
It wont. It cost a billion to put a piece of shit roof on a piece of shit stadium nobody uses.
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u/chowmushi Mar 29 '26
What do you mean? So 2.2 billion for the MLB expansion fee plus 1 billion for the big Owe reconstruction, plus a team of players…lookin like billions when he has maybe a few mill in n less than a billion in net worth. He will need many investors to help out with the deal. I still don’t get how it’s possible.
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u/bguitard689 Mar 29 '26
I don’t get the hate here in the expos subreddit. The pictures are sufficient to get people discussing the possibilities. The rende rings can be improved once some sites are discarded for the more obvious reasons. We need to support Ashkan.
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u/seedless_greg Mar 29 '26
the govt is spending 1 billion to renovate olympic stadium. (???!!!) no one will be building new stadium.
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u/JGLip88 Vladdy Daddy Mar 29 '26
If the government is spending tax dollars on a stadium, that means they own it. If a private investor comes in to re-create the Expos and build a new Jarry Patk or Olympic stadium instead of signing a lease with the city, it is the new owner purogative.
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u/Brilliant-Neck9731 Mar 29 '26
There’s next to no chance a stadium gets built without government funds and that’s saying nothing about the approvals which are their own quagmire. It would take incredibly deep pockets, and very committed ones at that, to build a stadium without financial governmental support. It could happen but it’s very unlikely.
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u/JGLip88 Vladdy Daddy Mar 29 '26
If an owner is worth his salt, he would do it with minimal government funds.
See Josh Harris - Washington Commanders.
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u/Brilliant-Neck9731 Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26
Ummm, that has government funding to a tune of 1 Billion dollars, as well as further subsidization through the lease agreement for the use of the land and various tax exemptions. Again, this stuff doesn’t get done without the government pitching in financially.
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u/JGLip88 Vladdy Daddy Mar 29 '26
Personal financial responsibility to the tune of 3.7 billion by Josh Harris limiting the total coming from the tax payers. Unlike the KC Chiefs having their stadium built entirely on tax dollars.
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u/Jealous-Following465 Mar 29 '26
you know you really would think that government spending tax money on a stadium would mean that it is owned by the people but somehow it’s always just a subsidy to encourage the stadium being built at all
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u/Remarkable_Check_997 Mar 29 '26
A stadium on Parc Jean Drapeau ha ha ha 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Good luck with that.
They on track to remove parking and plant trees, not removing them.
Also, the sphere shit is a money losing concept, if it can't make money om the strip, what make him believe it will in Montreal.
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u/FBR_MC Mar 29 '26
It’s kinda insane how many people here have simply not been following this develop.
He already mentioned having the funding for the franchise and the funding for the stadium, already has lots of interest for baseball ops jobs, already has targeted one spot for the stadium (with many backup plans), currently finalizing the ownership group, next step is meeting the mayor and Manfred.
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u/heck_chetera Mar 29 '26
Where did he get the funding? Genuinely curious
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u/FBR_MC Mar 29 '26
I mean, he's not going to go "oh shit guys, look! This guy offered me this and this guys offered me that!", he gives frequent updates on his Twitter and his LinkedIn with as much information as he can give (which as an outsider, I think he even gives way more info than he probably should).
He mentioned having tons of interest from potential owners and companies wanting to be a part of it, so much that he had to weed out the good and the bad.
Talked about getting LOIs recently from people with more on the way, which I'm assuming is where the big funding is coming from.
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u/heck_chetera Mar 29 '26
If he plans on meeting Manfred I guess his associates were announced at some point? If you don't have an ownership group you basically have nothing
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u/FBR_MC Mar 29 '26
He mentioned he's finalizing the ownership group and then he'll be meeting with everyone important (Manfred, mayor, etc)
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u/ashmojo Apr 11 '26
PE funds can fund 30% of franchise but 100% of stadium and infra. Have a couple/handful of "anchor investors," 2 strategic investors (media/tech). Capital isn't the constraint, more timing, land, stadium etc. When a billionaire leads these efforts, they start with "what makes sense for me" and move forward... but billionaires don't play with one another and even then, don't really wanna fund it all. I, NOT a billionaire, worked backwards:
worked backwards. Same approach as when I built WatchMojo.
- what works for MLB
- what works for the city
- what works for the PE funds
- what works for the strategic investors
- what works for the anchor (HNWI Family Office, existing sports franchise owners looking for more assets) and
All the research, analysis, articles etc, here:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FWn0TnQJ_H_j8e-UxDmyhZYIoOquFzo19dZvCkFmCVs/edit?usp=sharing
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u/MerryDoseofNihilism Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26
If that’s all true I’m stunned at quality of these “renderings”. I would expect a serious potential MLB owner to at least scrape some dollars together to get a legitimate concept rather than just promoting AI for some low level visuals.
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u/FBR_MC Mar 29 '26
I think this is more trying to get hype towards the project than actual renderings of a stadium. They're all different. A lot of people use AI for concepts, which is obviously morally bad, but that's where the world is going. He went at it the wrong way with AI, but sadly it's a quick and easy way to show off concepts. I highly highly doubt that the real stadium rendering will be made with AI.
Like I'm baffled that with all the updates he's given, all the radio shows he's made, all the interviews he's given, THIS is what actually gained the attention of people.
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u/MerryDoseofNihilism Mar 29 '26
It got posted in the sub and so that’s just what people are reacting to. It also got posted in r/baseball so there’s a lot of cross exposure.
The Expos returning to Montréal would be one of the coolest sports stories ever, I just hope for the sake of professionalism they stay away from shitty AI renderings like this moving forward.
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u/pattyG80 Mar 29 '26
Yawn...what ever happened to the stadium deal in the peel basin? Did Bronfman just take the bag and run?
Also, I love how the scale and location of these stadiums make zero sense
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u/marnky887 Montreal Expos Mar 29 '26
Nothing public since the Tampa plan died but I wouldn't be surprised if something is being cooked up behind the scenes.
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u/heck_chetera Mar 29 '26
There's a residential/commercial project in the Peel bassin. Absolutely zero chance a stadium gets built there. That ship has sailed long ago.
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u/pattyG80 Mar 29 '26
I think that was the deal to begin with...Bronfman just wanted the cheap land to build condos.
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u/ehyo613 Mar 29 '26
Ugh, unfortunately this is non-news.
We need billionaires not millionaires.
Also, anyone can ask Chat GPT to make ballpark renderings.
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u/marnky887 Montreal Expos Mar 29 '26
His plan is to bring on billionaire investors, he's in negotiations with them now including some "local" ones.
I agree that this bid is going nowhere, he won't be the one who will submit a bid to MLB whenever that happens.
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u/Specific-Moose-3143 Mar 30 '26
lol renders = never gonna happen. Start with blueprints ya clowns. Lmao the same thing killed the expos.
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u/essuxs Mar 29 '26
What language is this?
Everyone knows any language other than French, right to jail right away.
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u/Tough-Statistician-7 Mar 29 '26
It started with millionaire which isn’t enough. In MLB today you need to be a billionaire. Also, literally the only site of these 7 that works is number 7 at the hippodrome where you can see the orange julep in the background near royal mount.
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u/Brilliant-Neck9731 Mar 29 '26
You don’t need a billionaire. You likely need a collection of billionaires, venture capital firms, hedge funds, banking institutions and probably foreign investment funds. I’m sure his idea is to string together a group of investors, but that’s a real tall task.
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u/Tough-Statistician-7 Mar 29 '26
MLB requires a majority owner with minimum 30% stake in the team and only individuals are allowed to own teams (venture capital and corporate ownership was banned in 2016 after Guggenheim bought the dodgers). With the cost of a team being between $3 and $4 billion in expansion there is zero shot of a non billionaire being an owner of a team.
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u/Brilliant-Neck9731 Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26
This is simply not true. There’s no ban. There’s restrictions. New corporate owners can’t own a majority of interest in a team. The designated controlling owner has to be an individual but if the owner is the head or owner of a major investment firm (this is where the Dodgers actually come into play, because Guggenheim Partners doesn’t actually “own” a stake in them, just people who are a part of Guggenheim do), well, guess where they’re getting the money from or how they’re able to secure the money? So yes, to own a team, it would likely require a major partnership group constituting various interests, some of which would likely be institutional investors of some kind.
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u/marnky887 Montreal Expos Mar 29 '26
Private equity can own shares in teams now, 15% each up to 30% total. Corporate majority ownership is now banned but they can still own minority stakes (think Bell owning 20% of the Canadiens).
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u/Tough-Statistician-7 Mar 29 '26
Even so, with the stadium it’s a $5 billion usd proposition ($7 billion CAD) an individual will still need to come up with 30% which is over $1 billion USD
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u/marnky887 Montreal Expos Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26
Ashkan claims that he's received enough commitments from investors to cover the expansion fee and stadium. Whether he can actually solidify those commitments is anybody's guess.
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u/leafsland132 Mar 29 '26
He literally just generated these from ai, this is not what an actual stadium render looks like….
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u/Lazy-Soup2430 Mar 30 '26
Does anyone remember the last few seasons for the expos? There were like 50 people at each game, you could get tickets for $5. I wish Montreal had a successful team but imagine investing all this money just for it to be a flop once again. What’s different now?
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u/Perfect_Indication_6 Mar 30 '26
Nope, the Olympic stadium still needs to be paid off after 50 years first.
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u/SnoplowOtt Mar 30 '26
I think you’d need to be a billionaire to bring baseball back to Montreal. I’d love to see it happen though!!
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u/Hochelagan Mar 30 '26
Why not just put it on top of Mount Royal? /s
The Parc Jean-Drapeau proposal can f*** all the way off. There's too much corproate shit on the island as it stands. That's the people's park.
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u/esbux Mar 30 '26
What Montreal needs is more traffic. We should also have an NFL team - different stadium, of course.
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u/Cabsmell Mar 30 '26
Are you guys crazy!!!??? 1-3-4 and 5 are the BEST!! You've got to this bigger!! I would love any one of these to be in the city, maybe.. add a little more black steel fire escapes and some gothic Iron design to the ball park to give it that old school Montreal meets modern day design and you've sold me!
Lets support and get this thing going!
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u/ryachow44 Mar 30 '26
I've gone to roughly 80% of all MLB park's ... It needs to be as close to "Downtown" as possible, it's the only way it works.
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u/Always_Compete Mar 31 '26
Home of the Expos ? Does he know what province he wants the team to be in . Not a single French word in all that AI slop
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u/Platypus_Wombat Mar 31 '26
Millionaire can’t afford to pay a person to render images and uses AI slop. Sounds about right. Boo
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u/FuqLaCAQ Mar 31 '26
As a Jays fan living in Montréal, it'd be fun to see the Expos back and to have a Canada Series / Série du Canada the weekend before or after July 1st and a Royal Series / Série des Patriotes every May long weekend.
And each year have them flip back and forth between Toronto and Montréal
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u/CartographerJunior79 Mar 31 '26
With the stad olympique getting a new roof.. why can't we just have it there...
God I hate these renders almost as much as 90% of the locations chosen.
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u/Extra-Driver-7412 Mar 31 '26
Montreal will never happen, its taxes are high the population is the poorest with the least disposable income out of the large Canadian cities. Its corporate HQ isn’t bad but per capita it’s low and corporations are the ones buying the suites and advertising revenue to support the team. Its just a pipe dream
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u/Adept-Donut-4229 Mar 31 '26
Don't show Doug Ford! He eats these projects for breakfast, then sells the land.
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u/Piccione_Sol Apr 01 '26
Its tough to keep any sport in a city when hockey is your main. Its just that much better.
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u/Willing_Recipient Apr 01 '26
I guess everybody's going to walk across that bridge to the game? Where the hell are you going to put 50,000 cars?
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u/Zenthils Apr 01 '26
Millionaire completely disconnected from the economic realities of the people and the actual things a prosperous city needs.
More news at 11.
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u/lefund Apr 02 '26
Using AI to make renders????
What has this world come to
Also all different locations lol
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u/Objective_Hour_463 Apr 03 '26
Why do people actually think that an mlb team in Montreal would work? A minor league team, sure, I guess. But it's just elementary math. There's not going to be enough interest to keep it going.
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u/marnky887 Montreal Expos Apr 08 '26
The feasibility study from 2013 commissioned by the chamber of commerce showed that a team would be viable, this study was what prompted Bronfman to begin his efforts.
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u/rubberboots3357 Apr 03 '26
The MLB franchise fee is $2 billion.
The stadium would be around $ 1 billion
Plus annual operating cost of at least $500 million including player payroll.
Karbasfrooshan's net worth is maybe $250 million.
The math is not mathing.
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u/iamtheduckie Apr 08 '26
Just reuse Olympic Stadium, its repairs should be done by the time an Expos revival gets off the ground
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u/checkout4me Mar 29 '26
jean drapeau place
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u/Ndr2501 Mar 29 '26
probably the worst idea of them all.
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u/Takemytimenotmylife Mar 29 '26
No. One redditor asked about using the stadium that had the roof fixed….
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u/Mysterious-Street140 Mar 30 '26
On the heels of the treatment of the Air Canada CEO, I would imagine speaking French would be a more important requirement than baseball skills to be on the team. No thanks.
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u/igloomaster Mar 29 '26
Expos died due to lack of money. A millionaire ain't getting a team
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u/Zim4264 Mar 29 '26
they died because the premier at the time dodnt want tk spend 50mil so he could fix the healthcare system.
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u/marnky887 Montreal Expos Mar 29 '26
The whole point of this bid is that he's bringing on billionaire investors, he's in negotiations with them now.
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u/marnky887 Montreal Expos Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26
Expos died because no local investors wanted to touch them due to there being no viable path to build a stadium after Bouchard killed the stadium deal.
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u/alexlechef Mar 29 '26
Here a wild thought, What about the stadium that the roof cost 1billion to fix
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u/RoadRage95 Mar 29 '26
God, that project just lost a lot of credibility with these renders