The Demise of Canada’s First MLB Team Is Explored in ‘Who Killed the Montreal Expos?’

Long before “Canada’s Team” won the American League pennant on Monday night, another beloved MLB franchise called the country home.

The Montreal Expos arrived first in Canada in 1969, eight years ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays, and for 35 years, they became a symbol of pride and identity for the city.

But in 2004, the team played its final game at Olympic Stadium, crushing the hearts of legions of devoted fans. 

Now, a new Netflix documentary premiering today — Who Killed the Montreal Expos? — aims to answer the curious question of how the Expos became extinct.

Was the team’s demise about money? Botched ownership? Or even something more nefarious?

The 91-minute documentary, directed by Jean-François Poisson, features a hit parade of Expos greats, from Hall of Famers Pedro Martinez and Larry Walker to Vladimir Guerrero Sr., who happens to be the father of that other Canadian franchise’s newly crowned ALCS MVP.

Journalists on the Expos beat, former manager Felipe Alou and at least one former owner all make cases for the team’s rise and fall.

“It was a disaster, but I didn’t care,” David Samson, the former Expos executive vice president whose stepfather, New York art dealer Jeffrey Loria, bought the team in 1999, says in the documentary.

He adds, “It was a fixer-upper franchise.”

Not so much to Expos fans, however. The new ownership came onto the scene five years after the franchise’s best year in existence, 1994, when they had the top record in baseball (74–40).

But then a strike upended the team’s World Series run and the season came to a halt.

“I can’t help but think that the strike was what pushed the Expos to the exit,” Chantal Machabée, a sports presenter, says at one point.

During the Loria years, the Olympic Stadium’s roof took center stage when it frequently dispatched water onto the field. But financial issues prevented the owners from fixing the problem or building a new venue.

“The fact of the matter is, and I apologize for saying it, baseball in Montreal doesn’t work,” Samson, now a podcaster, says.

And with the current success of the Blue Jays, who face the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday in the World Series, examining the Expos’ end at this moment in history is particularly poignant.

“I’m extremely sad to not see Montreal with a team,” Martinez, who played with the Expos from 1994-1997, says. “That’s the one thing that’s never left my mind. Because every time I come to Montreal, every time I see my people, my fans, I get sentimental.”

Who Killed the Montreal Expos? is now streaming on Netflix.