There won’t be an MLB expansion in the near future.
There will be no MLB expansion to 32 teams in the near future. John Fisher’s Athletics franchise is presently in Sacramento and Sacramento might be an expansion candidate if an MLB state-of-the-art stadium materializes. Fisher is waiting for a stadium to be built in Las Vegas. The future of the Tampa Bay Rays franchise is undecided. There are stadium issues in Chicago, Kansas City and Phoenix that need to be resolved. There is also a collective bargaining negotiation on the horizon as the owners and players deal ends in December 2026. But there are politicians in Oregon who are ready to turn over $800 million to help build a Portland ballpark and in Utah, politicians are ready to dole out about a billion dollars to help build a Salt Lake City baseball stadium. Tariffs and a trade war will make stadium building more expensive. There seems to be interest in North Carolina in landing a team and then there is Nashville, a city with no suitable ballpark and shaky political support for using taxpayers’ dollars to help construct a baseball stadium. Nashville and Tennessee politicians are spending more than a billion dollars for a National Football League state-of-the-art venue and on a Major League Soccer stadium. There may be no public money left over for Music City Baseball to build a Nashville Stars’ ballpark.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred knows Nashville investors want a franchise but he is not endorsing Nashville yet. “I think it almost goes without saying at this point that Nashville is a candidate and a good candidate. I have learned that saying too much about any potential expansion candidates sets off a chain of phone calls from everybody else, so I’m just going to leave it there.” Manfred has been pushing for an expansion but nothing has happened.
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