MLB expansion is years away.
Did you hear the one from Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred about putting a second team in Canada? “Another city in Canada clearly could work for us”. That other city appears not to be Montréal. Manfred is talking up Vancouver, British Columbia. Vancouver has more than 2.6 million people in its metropolitan area. The city does house a National Hockey League, a Professional Women’s Hockey League and a Major League Soccer franchise. But there is a major problem in the Vancouver metropolitan area. There is no suitable baseball stadium and no plans for a stadium at this juncture. Another problem, the Canadian dollar is worth around 71 cents US and MLB does its business in American greenbacks. There is also a trade war taking place between the US and Canada.
Still Manfred views the Vancouver market in a high regard. Manfred needs as many metropolitan areas as possible to get the best possible expansion franchise stadium deal pitting municipalities against municipalities. Speaking highly of Vancouver doesn’t mean much as expansion is years way but Manfred put Vancouver in the expansion derby. “I think Vancouver’s a great city,” said Manfred. “I think that Canada has been unbelievably supportive of Major League Baseball. I can’t say enough about the support that the (Toronto) Blue Jays have received. I happened to be in Western Canada this summer, was absolutely blown away by the Blue Jay gear, the talk about the Blue Jays, how into it they are. The Seattle club will tell you, the best series they have year in and year out is when the Blue Jays come to visit and a ton of people from Canada come over to watch the games.” Manfred wants a team from the east and one from the west but nothing happens until the players and owners agree to a new collective bargaining agreement.
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