Talk:Montreal Expos/FAQ

Various discussions recur frequently regarding the Montreal Expos article. This FAQ summarizes the key arguments that were made. Note in accordance with Wikipedia:Naming conventions (sports teams) § North American sports teams, updated as a result of a 2022 request for comments discussion, there is currently consensus support to keep the Montreal Expos and Washington Nationals articles separate, with their current names.

Proposals to combine Montreal Expos with Washington Nationals

Various proposals have been made to eliminate the Montreal Expos article and redirect it to the Washington Nationals article, for the following reasons:

• Consistency among articles on MLB teams:
  • Milwaukee Braves redirects to Atlanta Braves
  • Kansas City Athletics redirects to a subsection of History of the Oakland Athletics
  • Washington Senators is a disambiguation page; the pages of the Minnesota Twins and Texas Rangers (baseball) contain relevant information
• Consistency with other team articles:
  • Baltimore Bullets is a disambiguation page; the link for "Baltimore Bullets (1963–1973)" redirects to Washington Wizards
  • Los Angeles Raiders redirects to History of the Los Angeles Raiders
  • Minnesota Lakers redirects to Los Angeles Lakers
  • New Orleans Jazz (NBA) redirects to Utah Jazz
  • Charlotte Hornets covers the history of the Hornets in its first incarnation, and the later franchise that was first called the Bobcats
  • Salt Lake City Bees covers the history of various Salt Lake City teams
• As the Washington Nationals franchise is the same as the Montreal Expos franchise, a page with the name "Montreal Expos" overlaps with the Washington Nationals article. Other topics that are the same, such as Cassius Clay and Muhammad Ali, have a single page.

The following reasons for keeping the Montreal Expos article separate have been raised:

• The Washington Nationals article would be too unwieldy if the entire Expos history was included. Therefore, in accordance with summary style, splitting out a sub-article with information on the Expos is a natural division.
• The topic "Montreal Expos" has independent notability from its franchise, with historical and cultural context that is easier to describe separately from the historical context of Washington baseball.
• Consistency among articles on MLB teams:
  • History of the Brooklyn Dodgers is a spinout from the Los Angeles Dodgers article
  • History of the New York Giants (NL) is a spinout from the San Francisco Giants article
  • History of the Philadelphia Athletics is a spinout from the History of the Oakland Athletics article
  • History of the St. Louis Browns is a spinout from the Baltimore Orioles article
  • Seattle Pilots is a spinout from the Milwaukee Brewers article
• If the Expos and Nationals were covered by one article, following Wikipedia's guidance on giving appropriate weight to different periods of history, the Washington Nationals article would be dominated with Expos information. This may be contrary to the desires of the Nationals' readership.
• Consistency with other teams that have moved:
  • Baltimore Stallions --> Montreal Alouettes
  • Ontario Raiders --> Toronto Rock
  • Salt Lake City Gulls --> Calgary Cannons --> Albuquerque Isotopes
  • Edmonton Trappers --> Round Rock Express
  • Atlanta Flames --> Calgary Flames
  • Winnipeg Jets (1972–96) --> Phoenix Coyotes
  • Quebec Nordiques --> Colorado Avalanche
  • Minnesota North Stars --> Dallas Stars
  • Atlanta Thrashers --> Winnipeg Jets
  • Cleveland Rams --> Los Angeles Rams --> St. Louis Rams
  • Chicago Cardinals --> St. Louis Cardinals (NFL) --> Arizona Cardinals
  • Houston Oilers --> Tennessee Titans
  • Vancouver Grizzlies --> Memphis Grizzlies

Proposals to rename Montreal Expos

Various proposals have been made to rename the Montreal Expos article to another name, such as "History of the Montreal Expos", for the following reasons:

• Consistency with the following teams:
  • History of the Brooklyn Dodgers
  • History of the New York Giants (NL)
  • History of the Philadelphia Athletics
  • History of the Los Angeles Rams
  • History of the Chicago Cardinals
  • History of the St. Louis Cardinals (NFL)
  • History of the Houston Oilers
• A page with the name "Montreal Expos" may imply that the Expos franchise differs from the Washington Nationals franchise, which is not the case.

The following reasons for keeping the Montreal Expos article under its current name have been raised:

• "Montreal Expos" is the commonly-used name, and so the one most commonly used by readers and editors to locate this article.
• Given that History of the Montreal Expos can redirect to "Montreal Expos", or vice-versa, there is no substantive difference between using either name for the article. In that case, the simpler, more common name is preferred.
• Consistency with other teams that have moved (see list above).
• The topic of the "Montreal Expos" has a greater scope, such as cultural influence, than is typically covered in a "History of..." article.

Proposals to redirect "Montreal Expos", if the current article is moved to a different name

It has been proposed that after renaming the "Montreal Expos" article, "Montreal Expos" should redirect to "Washington Nationals", for the following reasons:

• References to "Montreal Expos" are generally to the franchise, and so should redirect to the main article for the franchise.
• Since the Washington Nationals franchise is the same as the Montreal Expos franchise, the term "Montreal Expos" should redirect to "Washington Nationals", just as Cassius Clay redirects to Muhammad Ali.

The following reasons for redirecting "Montreal Expos" to its renamed article have been raised:

• Consistency among other MLB teams:
  • Brooklyn Dodgers redirects to History of the Brooklyn Dodgers
  • New York Giants (NL) redirects to History of the New York Giants (NL)
  • Philadelphia Athletics redirects to History of the Philadelphia Athletics
  • Kansas City Athletics redirects to a subsection of History of the Oakland Athletics
• References to "Montreal Expos" are generally within a context referring to the Montreal incarnation of the franchise, and so should redirect to the article dealing with this time period.

Past discussion threads

Formal AfD discussion:

• Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Montréal Expos (April-May, 2005), where the consensus was to keep the Montreal Expos article.

Talk page discussions:

• Talk:Washington Nationals/Archive 1#Utterly ridiculous... (January 2005 - September 2006)
• Talk:Montreal Expos/Archive 1#The history of the Montreal Expos does not belong in Washington. (April-May, 2005)
• Talk:Montreal Expos/Archive 1#Expos = distinct team from Nationals (April-May, 2005 and May-June, 2006)
• Talk:Montreal Expos/Archive 1#Wiki Gods need to step in (June-July 2005)
• Talk:Washington Nationals/Archive 1#Expos-Nationals Cleanup (August 2005)
• Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Baseball/Archive 1#Teams by city or by franchise? (September 2005 - August 2006)
• Talk:Washington Nationals/Archive 1#This needs to merge with Montreal Expos (June 2006)
• Talk:Montreal Expos/Archive 1#Editing incorrect statements (June 2006)
• Talk:Montreal Expos/Archive 1#Merge (September 2006)
• Talk:Montreal Expos/Archive 1#I say merge with Washington (September 2006)
• Talk:Washington Nationals/Archive 1#The Definitive answer to the Expos/Nationals controversy (September-October 2006)
• Talk:Montreal Expos/Archive 1#Why not just pretend the Expos never exsisted? (November 2006)
• Talk:Montreal Expos/Archive 1#Same Franchise? (April-June 2007)
• Talk:Washington Nationals/Archive 1#Same Franchise? (April 2007)
• Talk:Montreal Expos/Archive 1#Current Merge Discussion (June 2007)
• Talk:Montreal Expos/Archive 1#Merge with Washington Nationals (June–July 2009)
• Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Baseball/Archive 17#The impossible dream.3F Expos.2FNationals (October 2009)
• Talk:Montreal Expos/Archive 2#Merge discussion .28I guess it is that time of year or something.29.3F (November 2010)
• Talk:Washington Nationals#Merger Proposal (February–March 2011)
• Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Baseball/Archive 25#Page move requests (February–March 2011)
• Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Baseball/Archive 25#Expos the former name of the Nationals (March 2011)
• Talk:Montreal Expos/Archive 2#Move to History of the Montreal Expos (March 2011)
• Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Baseball/Archive 29#Montreal Expos (April 2012)
• Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Baseball/Archive 30#Splitting (April–May 2012)
• Talk:Montreal Expos/Archive 2#Proposed merge with Washington Nationals (July 2015)
• Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (sports teams)#RfC regarding article titles of relocated professional sports teams in North America (February–April 2022)