While many cities in North America are getting excited about the return of Spring Training and baseball in general, Montreal fans can only look forward to watching the Cardinals vs Jays on the 26th and 27th of March. Those games will serve as a teaser for what could have been over the years. It brings up the question of future Montreal Expos ownership issues.

Let’s fast forward for a second and wonder about who will own the team if and when it returns.

The first two candidates are those who sat down with Rob Manfred just under a year ago and added the following very telling and confident statement,

“I can tell you we are no longer looking for investors and that we believe we have all the ingredients to be able to welcome a team, be it an expansion one or one that already exists,” the person said on condition of anonymity.

The source said the investors have a solid financial set-up, support from two levels of government, various potential locations for a stadium as well as at least five different designs for the venue.

“We are not going to say we favour one site or another,” the source said. “But it’s crucial for the [eventual] site to be well served by public transit.”

Now, for those who have been around a while and know about previous Expos ownership, the Bronfman name will be very familiar. But for those that may not be aware of who the key players are, here’s a quick rundown of each.

Stephen Bronfman: The Basics

• 53 years old
• Education – Graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts in 1986.
• Title – Executive Chairman of Claridge Inc (private investment firm) for over 20 years.
• Must Read Article – From June Thompson, Montreal Gazette, here.
• Questionable – In 2017, Stephen Bronfman denied having funded or used offshore trusts after the Paradise Papers saga came to light (up to $60M being questioned). Stephen denied all allegations and was never charged
• Well connected – Globe and Mail article (March 2017), talks about Justin Trudeau placing the fortunes of Liberal Party fundraising efforts in Stephen Bronfman’s hands.
• Charitable work –  Work through the “Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Family Foundation (CSBFF), which gives millions of dollars a year to a variety of causes (over $3.5M in 2016) including $1M to the CRB Foundation and $250K to the David Suzuki foundation. According to New York Times staff reporter, Nathaniel Popper, the Bronfman family is “perhaps the single largest force in the Jewish charitable world.”

Stephen Bronfman: A Family history

It would be hard for me to do any better to tell the basic take of how his family came to be in the position they are (wealth wise), so I’ll let what’s denoted on Claridge’s website tell the take on this one.

“The entrepreneurial Bronfman family has been seizing opportunities for over two centuries. From humble beginnings as a Russian immigrant at the end of the nineteenth century, the family patriarch Samuel Bronfman began to build what would become the largest distiller in North America. Under his leadership, the Bronfman family established itself as a pioneer of the Canadian industrial landscape and built a crown jewel of the emerging Canadian economy. As a direct beneficiary of the fortune created from the Seagram empire during its 80 year period under Bronfman control, the family office multiplied the value of the Seagram cash flow by continually reinvesting in a myriad of ventures, ranging from chemical production to real estate.

Claridge, founded in 1987 by Stephen Bronfman’s father Charles Bronfman, and its predecessor company, Cemp Investments Ltd., have been active private equity investors for over five decades. The firm employs some 30 investment and administrative professionals. Our portfolio composition is carefully shaped to reflect the optimal mix between economic sectors and geographies. Direct equity participations currently include holdings in food, real estate, technology, entertainment, and renewable energy, among others. Claridge also has third-party managed investments in a variety of industries throughout the world. Claridge has thrived through many economic cycles. Our investment experience, coupled with our expertise in identifying transformational opportunities and adding value to portfolio companies, has helped us achieve superior risk-adjusted returns over the long term.”

• On Seagrams – “Edgar Bronfman Jr. sold controlling interest in Seagram’s entertainment division to Vivendi and the beverage division to Pernod Ricard and Diageo.”

Stephen Bronfman: Why so Interested in the Expos?

With all of this wealth, success, and high level work, why would Stephen be so interested in bringing the Expos back to Montreal?

Well, his father, The Honourable Charles Bronfman (86), was the majority owner from the time the Expos were formed in 1968 right through to 1990. That explains his interest in the team, but what kind of wealth does Stephen have? (his father is said to be worth approximately $2.8B)

Here’s a quick look back at Charles Bronfman and his Expos legacy,

In terms of direct experience with the Expos, Stephen “worked briefly in the marketing department of the Expos, then owned by his father. Still unsure of a career path, in 1990 he enrolled in Montreal’s Concordia University to study geology” That only last one year, whereafter he had various experiences before settling in with previously noted Claridge in 1997.

The experience with the Montreal Expos, even if for a short time and in a limited capacity, must have had an impact on Stephen, and watching your father go through the ups and downs of such an endeavour has to leave a mark of some kind.

There’s a sense that Stephen may want to complete the mission his father set out on when he brought the Expos to Montreal. To finally push the city to a World Series Championship, changing the city’s fortunes as it applies to Baseball forever in the process and setting Montreal Expos fans hearts firmly within MLB’s realm.

When you also consider that the Canadian Prime Minister at the time that Charles Bronfman brought the Expos to Montreal was none other than Pierre Trudeau, the current Prime Minister’s father, it begs the following question, are the sons of Charles Bronfman and Pierre Trudeau setting the course to make a success of something their fathers yearned to achieve in their time?

It’s possible, and there’s no doubting that Bronfman has the Prime Minister’s ear and likely support in helping fund a stadium build.

Mitch Garber: Basics

There’s a much shorter story in Mitch Garber‘s case.

• Also 53 years old.
• Before going to University, apparently watched his father who owned the Rib ’N Reef and suffered from depression go broke. Mitch reportedly needed assistance in donations in order to continue through his education and just got into McGill.
• McGill Graduate (BA, 1986) and University of Ottawa (Law, 1989).
• Practiced law in Montreal at the firm Lazarus Charbonneau from 1990-1999.

Mitch Garber: Business successes include

• Co-investor and Board member of Rackspace.
• Co-investor and advisor to Career Builder.
• SureFire/Terra Payments/Optimal Payments/FireOne
• PartyGaming Plc
• Caesars Interactive Entertainment (CIE) (CEO)
  • Co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Caesars Interactive Entertainment.
  • Left Caesars Oct 6th, 2017 “after overseeing the successful merger of (CACQ) and Caesars Entertainment”
  • Received a cash payout of $210M, the largest Executive cash payout of a publicly traded company in US history
• Playtika
  • “Only July 31, 2016, CIE announced the sale of Playtika to a Chinese consortium involving Giant Interactive Group, one of China’s leading games companies, and Yunfeng Capital, the private equity firm of Alibaba Founder and CEO, Jack Ma, for $4.4 billion.^[8] Having initially acquired Playtika in 2011 for approximately $100 million, Garber made it one of the most successful acquisitions in the social and mobile games industry, returning approximately 44x the investment.”
• Cirque du Soleil
  • “In 2015, Garber became Chairman of Cirque du Soleil following the entertainment company’s buyout by TPG Capital, Chinese private equity firm Fosun International, and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Canada’s second largest pension fund. Garber co-invested in the deal, making him a part-owner in addition to being Chairman.”
• Has equity and investment ties to TPG Capital and Apollo Global Management.

And quite possibly the best indicator as to what Garber could bring to an Expos ownership group, aside from as impressive a business experience as you can imagine, he is noted as being ranked by Bloomberg in 2017 “as the 7th highest-paid executive in America, with total annual compensation estimated at $91 million, alongside the likes of Tim Cook and Elon Musk.”

Garber was quoted as saying the following

“I’ve learned to be a little more conservative than my father was,” said Garber, whose W-2 tax form listed income of about $180 million. “I put my money in, but I surround myself with great co-investors.”

Potential Future Montreal Expos Ownership is a Strong One

I dare anyone to come up with a pair of potential Montreal Expos owners who are as wealthy, well connected, and successful as Stephen Bronfman and Mitch Garber are.

From ties to the Prime Minister to ties and knowhow with the Entertainment industry, these two truly have it all and it’s no wonder that they were reportedly able to meet all the prerequisites looked for by MLB’s Commissioner, Rob Manfred, and even went as far as to make this strong statement,

“I can tell you we are no longer looking for investors and that we believe we have all the ingredients to be able to welcome a team, be it an expansion one or one that already exists,” the person said on condition of anonymity.

The source said the investors have a solid financial set-up, support from two levels of government, various potential locations for a stadium as well as at least five different designs for the venue.

“We are not going to say we favour one site or another,” the source said. “But it’s crucial for the [eventual] site to be well served by public transit.””

What we now know, based on the above, is that MLB will have an extremely strong, capable, and motivate ownership group to depend on as it expands in the near future.  What we don’t know yet is how strong other cities’ ownership groups will be and whether that competition will edge Montreal.

With the Canadian dollar, politics, and other stakeholders in play (such as ties by MLB owners), we simply don’t know yet whether or not Montreal will be selected if and when MLB expands. But what we do know for certain is that should they decide on this pair as owners of the Expos and bet on them it would make for a compelling story down the road if they were able to bring that coveted Wold Series Championship to Montreal.

– Mat Germain, baseball writer for Expos Reloaded and SB Nation’s DRaysBay, with more than 10 years covering the Toronto Blue Jays (Jays Journal) and Tampa Bay Rays. Still serving in the Canadian Armed Forces as a Reservist and Operations Officer for 413 Search and Rescue Squadron in Greenwood, Nova Scotia. Follow Mat on Twitter @MatGermain76.