The Expos will begin their latest sales and advertising
campaign today "in an attempt to kick-start the downtown
ballpark campaign," according to Jeff Blair of the Toronto
GLOBE & MAIL. The ad campaign "will be based" around a 30-
second TV spot televised on Montreal-area stations between
Monday and September 27. The club will also begin selling
ticket packages worth C$299 that would see C$115 go toward
the ballpark's construction fund. The packages would
"include certificates to be exchanged for general admission
tickets" to 10 games in 2001 (the year the park is targeted
to open) and terrace tickets for a game in '99 and 2001.
Purchasers would also have their "names engraved on one of
the bricks of the new park." Blair wrote the Expos have
been "sharply criticized for the dull, backroom nature of
the drive" to sell PSLs to the proposed ballpark, and Expos
President Claude Brochu "has become increasingly sensitive
to criticism that the team is forgetting whatever grassroots
fan base is left." Therefore, the team is announcing that
the public will have access to 11,000 seats at C$10 each in
the new facility (Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 8/29).
NO PUBLIC FUNDS: On Friday, Quebec Premier Lucien
Bouchard said the government "has no intention of investing
public funds in a baseball stadium in Montreal." While he
said he understood how "important it is for Montreal to
preserve the Expos," his comments were "one of his strongest
statements on the subject" (Montreal GAZETTE, 8/29).
