Expansion is up in the air.
Pinellas County, Florida are about ready to hand over large amounts of public money to Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays’ ownership group, what does that mean for Major League Baseball? MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and the 30 owners decided to hold off on expansion until the stadium situations were resolved in Oakland and in St. Petersburg. The Rays’ ownership will be opening a new ballpark as part of a stadium village by 2028. Meanwhile the Oakland situation is not resolved. The Athletics’ owner John Fisher wants to move to Las Vegas but doesn’t seem to have the money to build a Las Vegas stadium at the moment. MLB is in a state of limbo in terms of expansion.
MLB has stadium issues in Chicago as the White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf is looking to build a stadium in another part of town. Reinsdorf has not received any support from the Illinois Governor JB Pritzker in terms of financing. There is nothing coming out of Anaheim where the Angels’ owner Arte Moreno in the past has sought a new stadium. In Phoenix, the Arizona Diamondbacks ownership group is having a stadium issue as well as the franchise’s deal with the local government to use the municipally-owned stadium ends in 2027. In the past, Diamondbacks ownership kicked the tires in Las Vegas as a possible home for the baseball team. In Kansas City, the Royals’ owner, John Sherman, lost a referendum that would have funded a new downtown Kansas City stadium for his baseball franchise. Sherman may have a chance at getting a new stadium in either Missouri or Kansas as lawmakers may be preparing a stadium proposal. Manfred for his part claims that MLB will not expand while he remains the commissioner and his term ends in 2029.
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