Jarry Park Stadium was a baseball stadium tucked inside a public park in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, that served as the original home of the Montreal Expos from 1969 to 1976. Built in 1960 as a modest 3,000-seat amateur facility, the stadium was rapidly expanded to accommodate Major League Baseball when Montreal was awarded an expansion franchise in 1968, reaching a capacity of about 28,000.
On April 14, 1969, Jarry Park made history as the site of the first MLB regular-season game ever played outside the United States, with the Expos defeating the St. Louis Cardinals 8–7 before a crowd of 29,184. The intimate ballpark sat alongside a public swimming pool in right field—a quirk that produced one of baseball’s most colorful moments when Pittsburgh Pirates slugger Willie Stargell drove a ball an estimated 495 feet into the water on July 16, 1969.
Stats at a Glance
- Team(s): Montreal Expos (1969–1976)
- Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- Opened (baseball): April 14, 1969
- Closed (baseball): September 26, 1976
- Capacity: About 28,000 (MLB era)
- Largest Crowd: 34,331 (September 15, 1973)
- First Game Result: Expos 8, Cardinals 7
- Surface: Natural grass
A Historic Debut for Canadian Baseball
The Expos arrived at Jarry Park as MLB’s first franchise outside the United States. The park’s original structure dated to 1960, built to retain minor league baseball in Montreal after the Dodgers pulled their Montreal Royals affiliation. A rapid overhaul ahead of the 1969 season added bleachers, extended seating, and a scoreboard, transforming the amateur grounds into a major-league venue. The makeshift expansion belied genuine charm—the intimate scale kept fans close to the action, and the park’s setting inside Parc Jarry gave it a neighborhood feel unlike any other major-league stadium of the era.
Despite its temporary nature, Jarry Park generated real excitement. Over eight seasons, the Expos drew a combined total of about 7.5 million fans. The stadium’s peak came on September 15, 1973, when 34,331 fans packed the park—surpassing its listed capacity—as Montreal’s passionate fanbase rallied around a competitive Expos club. That grassroots atmosphere helped cement baseball’s foothold in Canada before the Expos relocated to the larger Olympic Stadium in 1977.
Life After the Expos
When the Expos departed for Olympic Stadium, Jarry Park’s baseball era ended but the site endured. Through the 1980s the grounds were repurposed for recreation, and by 1992 the former stadium began its transformation into a tennis facility. By 1996 a new centre court stood where outfielders once tracked fly balls, and the venue passed through several naming rights deals before settling on IGA Stadium (Stade IGA) in 2018.
Today the 11,815-seat IGA Stadium hosts the National Bank Open, one of the premier events on the ATP and WTA tours. The broader Parc Jarry remains a vibrant public recreational hub, and while no original baseball grandstands survived the conversion, the park’s legacy endures as the birthplace of international Major League Baseball.
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Jarry Park Stadium FAQs
When did the Montreal Expos play at Jarry Park Stadium?
The Expos played at Jarry Park from Opening Day 1969 through September 26, 1976, before moving to Olympic Stadium for the 1977 season.
What was special about the swimming pool at Jarry Park?
A public swimming pool sat just beyond the right-field fence. On July 16, 1969, Pirates slugger Willie Stargell launched a ball an estimated 495 feet into the water, creating one of the most memorable moments in the park’s short but storied history.
What is Jarry Park Stadium today?
The site was converted into IGA Stadium (Stade IGA), a tennis venue that seats about 11,800 spectators and hosts the National Bank Open each summer.
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Photo: Francis Bourgouin from Montréal, Québec, Canada / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.