MONTREAL -- The Montreal Expos officially changed hands on Friday when former owner Charles Bronfman turned the team over to Claude Brochu and a consortium.
The terms of the sale, valued at $100 million in Canadian dollars, were agreed on over the winter but the transaction was not approved until last week by the rest of the major league owners.
'We are delighted that the team will remain in Montreal,' said Bronfman, who has owned the team since its inception in 1968 with partners Hugh Hallword and Lorne Webster.
Brochu, who has been the club president since 1968, has 12 partners in the consortium that includes the city of Montreal and the province of Quebec. Brochu will be the team spokesman and deal with all league matters.
'I am happy and relieived,' Brochu said. 'We started working on this project im December 1989 at the winter meetings in Nashvile and we were not without our problems.'
Rumors persisted that the team would move to Buffalo New York and that Bronfman could have received as much as $130 million in U.S. dollars for the Expos.
'I am convinced that baseball and the Expos will be in Montreal for another 100 years,' Brochu said.
Groups involved include Bell Cananda, McClelland Stewart, Coca Coca, Canadian Pacific and other local companies.
The franchise was awarded to Montreal on May 27, 1968 and Bronfman's group took over Aug. 14, 1968. The Expos played their first game April 8, 1969, defeating the New York Mets 11-10 in New York.
The first game in Montreal was an 8-7 victory over St. Louis April 14 at Jarry Park.
'Those two days stand out as special thrills to me,' Bronfman said.
The Expos moved from Jarry Park to their present home in the Olympic Stadium in 1977.
