The city has no public money available for a baseball stadium.
The mayor of Nashville, Tennessee has thrown cold water on the possibility that his city could take on a Major League Baseball expansion franchise or go after an existing franchise that might be on the market. Freddie O’Connor appearing on a local Nashville radio show told host George Plaster that Nashville does not have the ingredients to take on a Major League Baseball business. There is one group that has been pushing for an expansion team in Nashville called Music City Baseball. The group is led by John Loar but O’Connor seems to think that Loar’s group lacks some sort of credibility. O’Connor talked about one of the ingredients that would be necessary for Nashville to land a team. The city needs a baseball stadium. If someone wants to build a stadium and is willing to pay for the structure and the land needed for the facility, he would listen and possibly work with the group. Nashville is not paying the freight for an MLB venue.
O’Connor’s city and the state of Tennessee are paying for the construction of the National Football League’s Tennessee Titans’ stadium and Major League Soccer’s Nashville’s stadium and the upkeep of the city’s arena. There is a limited amount of money that is available for sports venues. O’Connor said it is difficult to imagine the city having the ability to publicly finance a new stadium. O’Connor added that “MLB would have the highest overall cost and largest overall land needs. So take that and couple it with a need for a credible ownership group and right now today, I would not say the ingredients are there for that.” At one time, Nashville appeared near the top of the list for possible expansion cities for Major League Baseball. There is no city ready to receive an MLB expansion or relocation franchise today.
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Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connor
