In 1967 MLGL entered into negotiations to purchase the financially struggling Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team of the minor AAA International League. The asking price was $60,000. The deal ultimately fell apart due to concerns about the team's stadium, Maple Leaf Stadium, which needed up to $250,000 in repairs and whose owner wanted $4 million to purchase it, and the team was sold and relocated to become the Louisville Colonels for the following season. MLGL owner Harold Ballard said that the company's interest was due in part to help position itself to go after a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise for Toronto. In early 1974 MLGL announced plans to build a new baseball stadium in Toronto, but the city ultimately decided to renovate Exhibition Stadium to make it suitable for baseball. At the time, the MLGL group, led by Lorne Duguid, vice-president of Hiram Walker Distillers and MLGL executive, was one of at least four bidding for a Toronto MLB team, including competing groups led by Labatt Brewing Company, Robert Hunter, the former President of the International League Maple Leafs, and Canadian Baseball Co, led by Sydney Cooper. After negotiating with the owners of the Baltimore Orioles, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians and Oakland Athletics in their attempt to acquire a team for Toronto, MLGL offered $15 million for the San Francisco Giants but the team's owner decided in early 1976 to sell the club to the Labatt group for US$13.25 million. While the Giants' relocation was ultimately rejected by a U.S. court, Labatt was awarded an expansion team in the American League that became the Toronto Blue Jays for US$7 million later that year.