Nashville is one of a number of cities that wants a team.
There may be no happier man than John Loar once Major League Baseball straightens out its stadium situations in Oakland and in St. Petersburg, Florida. John Loar of Nashville, Tennessee would like to own a Major League Baseball Nashville expansion team but Loar cannot even talk to Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred or any of the 30 owners formally because of the Oakland and St. Petersburg stadium issues. “We have no guarantee from baseball and no support from baseball until Tampa Bay and Oakland are resolved. Expansion isn’t in the conversation,” said Loar. At one time, Manfred was pushing for a two-team expansion with Nashville, Las Vegas, Charlotte, Montréal and Portland, Oregon in the mix. It is hard to see baseball backers in Montréal being too thrilled with Manfred and MLB after Manfred and MLB pulled the so-called Sister City concept of splitting Tampa Bay Rays’ home games in Montréal and in the Tampa Bay market.
Loar sits in Nashville watching Oakland Athletics’ owner John Fisher trying to manipulate Oakland, Alameda County, California, Las Vegas and Nevada politicians and other officials in an attempt to get a new stadium. It seems hard to believe that MLB would allow Fisher to go to Las Vegas from one standpoint. MLB could lose a market where someone might be willing to pay three billion dollars for an expansion team. Oakland is a wealthier market than Las Vegas. Meanwhile, Tampa Bay Rays’ owner Stu Sternberg, who trashed the Tampa Bay market as not being good enough to support a baseball business full time, thinks he is getting closer to getting a Tampa Bay market stadium somewhere. Just where that somewhere is? No one knows. Who will pay for a Rays park? No one knows. But Sternberg is pretty sure someone will get him a stadium. John Loar certainly hopes so.
Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com
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