Expansion has been delayed.
Someone should tell Utah State Senator Lincoln Fillmore, who represents Salt Lake County, that Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred has stated that he doesn’t expect MLB owners to entertain any thoughts of expansion in the remaining years of Manfred’s term in office. Manfred will retire in January 2029. Fillmore is of the opinion that Salt Lake City is in line to get an expansion franchise but the city won’t be able to bid for a team until 2028. “We’re about a calendar year closer. But probably not any steps closer,” Fillmore said. The Utah legislator thinks Major League Baseball owners and the Major League Baseball Players Association will come up with a new Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2026 and that MLB will announce expansion plans shortly after the signing of the new CBA. Fillmore has ignored the fact that MLB has maintained a position of not expanding until the Oakland and Tampa Bay stadium issues are resolved.
John Fisher did announce the move of his business from Oakland to Las Vegas in April 2023, but there is still no full financing for Fisher’s proposed Las Vegas stadium, so the move is not set in stone. In the Tampa Bay market, Rays’ ownership wants more public money to go into a stadium-village project and has not signed off on a deal to build a stadium-village in St. Petersburg. The Rays’ stadium-village deal with St. Petersburg and the Pinellas County elected officials could expire on March 31st. That situation is not resolved. There are stadium issues in Chicago, in Kansas City and in Phoenix. Those have to be addressed. Utah lawmakers are also willing to spend around one billion dollars to help build a stadium-village if Major League Baseball puts a team in Salt Lake City. But it could be a while before the money is spent.
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