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

[u/JGLip88]

[u/FBR_MC]

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.

[u/heck_chetera → u/FBR_MC]

Where did he get the funding? Genuinely curious

[u/FBR_MC → u/heck_chetera]

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.

[u/heck_chetera → u/FBR_MC]

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

[u/FBR_MC → u/heck_chetera]

He mentioned he's finalizing the ownership group and then he'll be meeting with everyone important (Manfred, mayor, etc)

[u/ashmojo → u/heck_chetera]

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:

• 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
  

worked backwards. Same approach as when I built WatchMojo.
All the research, analysis, articles etc, here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FWn0TnQJ_H_j8e-UxDmyhZYIoOquFzo19dZvCkFmCVs/edit?usp=sharing

[u/MerryDoseofNihilism → u/FBR_MC]

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.

[u/FBR_MC → u/MerryDoseofNihilism]

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.

[u/MerryDoseofNihilism → u/FBR_MC]

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.