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Montreal 1976

reviewed by irishgit

irishgit
10/21/2009

Montreal 1976 1

The first Olympic games held in Canada gave every other city in the country a hard on to hold their own.

Its hard to see why, since the games saddled the city with a debt that took 30 years to retire, and provided little in the way of infrastructure, except for a massive stadium with a retractable roof that didn't work.

On top of that, the host country came up empty in the Gold medal column, the only time that has happened in the history of the Summer Games.

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Lena commented 39 days ago.
ouch. I saw the Expos play in that very stadium. They lost. It was about 30% filled. (double-ouch)

FranksWildYears commented 39 days ago.
At 30% that actually would have been a remarkable night at the gate for the Expos. In their last year in Montreal management seriously considered an invitation to move a few games to Winnipeg because our un-afflilliated monor-minor-minor league team, in a circuit called the Northern League, was regularly putting more asses in the seats than they were in Montreal. And we have a pretty nice little park.

irishgit commented 39 days ago.
30% full? You were there on a good day. I saw a game there once that probably had 3000 people at it (it seats 60,000 or so)

Lena commented 39 days ago.
Despite the low (or apparently high) attendance, the cheap seats we sat in required binoculars they were so distant.

The main thing I recall is that each Expos player had his own grandiose theme song which played him onto the field before batting. This fanfare of an introduction to each failure made the players seem even worse than they probably were.

irishgit commented 39 days ago.
I'm not sure what year you were there, and its hard to remember now, but there was a time when the Expos were a great franchise, back in the late seventies and early eighties.... sigh....

Lena commented 39 days ago.
This was...hm...sometime between 96 and 99. I was only about 13 - 16 at the time. We went to Quebec (province) annually for those years to attend CAMMAC, and always stopped in Montreal on the way.

I've also been to the insectarium and the biodome :D

irishgit commented 39 days ago.
The bugs probably played better ball....

Lena commented 39 days ago.
Undoubtedly. To be fair to the Expos...I grew up in Boston, so my standards for baseball were pretty high (as was my expectation for end-of-season disappointment).

irishgit commented 39 days ago.
Understood. I've been a Red Sox fan since '67, so while I don't have the neighborhood appreciation that you do, I'm familiar with the disappointment.

George Higgins said that "Bostonians believe, and we are never disappointed, because what we believe is this: the world will break your heart some day, and we are luckier than most -- we get ours broken every year, at Fenway Park"

And Peter Gammons commented on the Red Sox back in the '90s that "They killed our fathers. Now they're coming for us."

Lena commented 39 days ago.
Love optimistic take on defeatism in the Higgins quote.

I blame at least 17 years of Boston sports disappointment on me. The autumn I moved to Philly for college, the Pats won the Superbowl, and the broken curse came a few years thereafter. The Celtics have also risen from the ashes since my departure. I'm clearly bad sports luck.

irishgit commented 39 days ago.
Thats bad news for the Niners and my Raiders then...

Lena commented 39 days ago.
Your raiders are safe...I don't live in Oakland. Plus they have fans in armor to protect their legacy.

irishgit commented 39 days ago.
The Raiders can screw up their legacy on their own, without any help from anyone.
Showing 13 Comments
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By the Numbers