Obstacles remain.
Now its Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark who is on board with MLB adding two teams. “We are hopeful that we can find ourselves in a world of 32 teams rather than 30,” said Clark. But Clark is not in charge of expansion although the players association can work out a deal with MLB owners that could pave the way for expansion. Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said he “love to get to 32 teams.” That means Manfred wants to add two teams to the mix at some point in the future. But there are some roadblocks to his plan. MLB officials want to see new stadiums built for the Oakland Athletics and the Tampa Bay Rays. Athletics owner John Fisher is playing Oakland against Las Vegas in the stadium game with Oakland possibly in the lead after a local commission said Fisher could build a stadium-village on the Oakland waterfront and Oakland has decided local residents don’t have to vote on the stadium plan. Tampa Bay Rays’ ownership seemingly is waiting for a new St. Petersburg proposal. Manfred has gone on record saying that MLB likes Las Vegas.
That could mean that Las Vegas would end up with an expansion franchise and MLB needs two teams when it expands, if it expands. Las Vegas is a clear frontrunner, with perhaps Nashville in the second position. Montréal seemed to be in a lead position when the Tampa Bay Rays “Sister City” plan of splitting home games between some place in the Tampa Bay area and Montréal was being laid out. There are people in Portland, Oregon who want a Major League Baseball team. Throw Charlotte into the mix as well. Las Vegas does not have a funded stadium plan at the moment, nor does Montréal nor do the other cities including Oakland and in the Tampa Bay market.
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com
