Olympic Stadium during last year's exhibition series between the Blue Jays and Red Sox. Photo by Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports
To little surprise, the Blue Jays will once again play a pair of games at Montreal's Olympic Stadium before kicking off the 2017 season.For the fourth straight year, Toronto will play two exhibition games at the 'Big O' after concluding its Grapefruit League spring training schedule. The games will take place on March 31 and April 1 before the Blue Jays kick off their regular season with a two-game set against the Orioles in Baltimore starting on the 3rd.The Montreal exhibition games have been an unmitigated success, as each year has witnessed the city's passionate fan base pack the house with sell-out crowds. The contests have routinely drawn around 50,000 fans per game, proving that there's still a strong appetite for baseball in Montreal more than 10 years after the city lost the Expos."Today, baseball is enjoying a sense of renewal in Quebec," said Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre. "Aware of its popularity and eager to support it, the city of Montreal has made a commitment to encourage and promote the sport of baseball all over its territory by adopting the Politique du baseball."This passion for the return of Major League Baseball in Montreal continues to grow and has not gone unnoticed. I invite all Montrealers to demonstrate again that Montreal is a baseball town."The Blue Jays and Red Sox drew over 100,000 fans for their two-game exhibition series in Montreal in 2016, roughly the same number as the previous two years when Toronto played a pair of games at Olympic Stadium against the Cincinnati Reds (2015) and New York Mets (2014).Montreal lost its MLB franchise following the 2004 season when the Expos relocated to Washington and became the Nationals. The city was home to MLB's first Canadian team when the Expos debuted in Montreal in 1969.
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