Nashville backers continue to push ahead in the hunt for an expansion team.
You have to give credit to the group that wants to bring Major League Baseball to Nashville. The group keeps reminding MLB that they exist even though there are no plans to add two teams anytime soon through an expansion to 32 teams and the Oakland Athletics owners want a new stadium in either Oakland or the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The latest news from Nashville is the group has an area that could be home to a Nashville Stars Major League Baseball team. Music City Baseball, the Nashville group, plans to investigate whether it is possible to build a stadium on some land at the Tennessee State University campus. In a perfect world, the Music City Baseball group would have liked to build a baseball park near the Tennessee Titans National Football League stadium but Titans ownership was uninterested in sharing the property with a baseball team. Now comes the due diligence in putting a stadium on a college campus. Does it make sense for the baseball group, the college and for Nashville itself?
It is unlikely Major League Baseball will expand anytime soon unless MLB owners need a major cash infusion. There is the issue of the collective bargaining agreement with the players. That deal expires after the 2021 season. MLB is also dealing with getting stadium situations straightened out in Oakland and in the Tampa-St. Petersburg market. The Oakland Athletics’ ownership is pushing to get a deal done with local officials to build a stadium-village on the San Francisco Bay-Oakland waterfront or in Las Vegas. That situation is far from resolved. Tampa Bay Rays’ ownership is pitching a plan to split home games between Tampa and Montreal. Rays ownership might also be looking again at Ybor City for a stadium site. The CBA and the stadium situations need to be settled before MLB can expand.
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
