MLB is not handing out expansion teams in the near future.
If you listen to former Major League Baseball player Dale Murphy, who is part of the group that is pushing for an MLB expansion team in Salt Lake City, the Salt Lake city area “is a major league market.” But Murphy did throw in a proviso. “We can absolutely do Major League Baseball. We’re closer but we don’t know the timeline.” Salt Lake City has a National Basketball Association team, the National Hockey League is coming to town, there is a Major League Soccer team and also a National Women’s Soccer League franchise in the area along with big time college sports. But there is going to be a question that has to be answered soon. Is Salt Lake City big enough and rich enough to handle the sports that are being played in the market right now? Salt Lake City is on track to hosting the 2034 Winter Olympics but that is a one-off situation.
MLB may expand in about seven years. There could be settlements of stadium situations in St. Petersburg, Florida and Las Vegas but there are other stadium problems that have cropped in Kansas City, with the Chicago White Sox franchise and in Phoenix. Anaheim may also have a stadium issue. It seems MLB’s expansion policy is fix the present problems and then maybe we will get around to adding teams. “As far as the cities that are in contention for MLB, the commissioner said he wants one in the east and one in the west,” Murphy said. “The main thing that makes (Salt Lake City) so attractive is the ownership. They’re community-oriented, they’re local, and they’ve proven.” Utah politicians are spending money to give the NBA and NHL franchise owner Ryan Smith about $900 million for an arena-village. Utah politicians could give Murphy’s group nearly a billion for an MLB stadium-village. But MLB expansion is not coming soon.
Proposed Salt Lake City MLB stadium.
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