Salon Collectionneurs

Sports Fans Get Together

Text and Photos: Chris Chartier

December 01, 2015

L’international des collectionneurs/ Collector’s

international was held October 23-25 in

Montreal at the Centre Pierre-Charbonneau.

This international was celebrating 20 years,

and had a special limited edition

20 years/ 20 Legends.

The international features guests from boxing,

Wresting, hockey, baseball and more.

Friday featured Steven Butler, Arianne Fortin

and from the Montreal Canadiens

Mathieu Darche. Saturday saw Tiger Jackson,

Marcel Bonin, from the Montreal Canadiens

George Laraque and from wrestling

The Destroyer. Football guests were from the

Montreal Alouettes Samuel Giguère

and Boris Bede with a special

appearance by the Al’s cheerleaders.

From the world of swimming

Regent Lacoursière.

Léandre Normand is the

organizer for the event, often

these shows focus on Hockey.

This is a diverse guest list; how

does he come up with his guests?

“In fact when I started the show, my goal was always to have sports that interested me. Hockey of course is an interest of mine, but not just hockey. I personally am a big fan of the Olympics. I always have tried to get other sports as well. Football which I love, boxing, baseball and we have Wrestlers. It is a show that features multi-sports, it important to have more than just hockey. To me it is so important to show diversity.”

That is done. The guests were from a multitude of sports and the dealers matched this same diversity. You could pick up sport items, TV and movie memorabilia, Toys, Pins and anything you could want to collect and more.

I attended the Sunday which

featured long-time baseball

commentator Jacques Doucet.

Montreal Expos and Toronto

Blue Jays pitcher Denis Boucher,

as well as the Montreal

Canadiens’ Francis Bouillon.

While people were getting their

autographs the guests were

spending their time speaking

to all who were waiting, taking

their time answering all questions. It was a nice intimate setting to meet these guests. I had the time to speak to Francis Bouillon not just about hockey but baseball as well.

“It is incredible to see how Montreal

fans can be so devoted to their team.

Hockey yes, but look at the baseball

fans. You see Expos caps

everywhere and there is no team

here. It is nice to see fans with

such devotion to their team, as

a player nothing is better.”

With Jacques Doucet and Denis

Boucher there, it would be impossible

not to talk about the success of the

Blue Jays during the 2015 season.

Does this success help Montreal?

“Definitely. Baseball interest in going

up. I will tell you one thing, just being

involved with TVA with the telecasts of the Blue Jays; everywhere I go, everyone talks about the Blue Jays. So as long as we talk about baseball, the interest is growing and that’s it.” Jacques Doucet.

People were tuned in to Blue Jays games in both French and English, the Jays captivated the baseball fans across Canada.

“I think (This year) they had the best ratings ever for a regular season game on RDS.” Commented Denis Boucher.

“RDS they had over 700, 000, Sportnet had over 11 million for the 5th game. Somebody was telling me if they had a 7th game it would have been the lowest ratings for a Montreal Canadiens hockey game ever across Canada.” Jacques Doucet has been working at TVA sports since they started broadcasting the Blue Jays game.

This does nothing but help grow baseball in Quebec. In fact Baseball Quebec stated their 2015 numbers are as much as they were in 2004, the last year the province of Quebec had an MLB team.

“Baseball is growing every year in Quebec.” Said Denis Boucher.

“What is great about

Baseball Quebec,

they started this a

few years ago.

They go across

Quebec with good

instructors.

Rouyn-Noranda, Sept-Iles,

the Maritimes. The

kids were re-discovering

baseball instead

of soccer.” Jacques Doucet.

Nothing better than talking sports with people who just wanted to talk to fans, the guests were very open to meeting and spending time with fans of all ages. It was a fun day spending time with these guests, meeting the fans there and checking out the dealers’ wares.

For more info on, L'International des collectionneurs - Collections Sport & Jouets or their next show visit:

https://www.facebook.com/international.des.collectionneurs