Nashville backers have a while before MLB will expand.
The Nashville Stars baseball business has added Don Mattingly, who is presently a Toronto coach, as its newest hire in the hopes of landing a Major League Baseball expansion franchise. Stars owner John Loar remains hopeful that his non-existent MLB franchise will be hosting someone at a Nashville stadium on the opening day of the 2027 season. Unfortunately for people living in the Nashville area and hoping to go to Opening Day 2027, a lot of things have to go right starting with the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays owners straightening out their stadium situations. MLB is not going to expand to 32 teams until the A’s and Rays get new ballparks. Then there is the matter of building a state-of-the-art Nashville Major League Baseball stadium. Nashville does not have that type of facility but Loar is working on getting a stadium built. Loar’s Music City Baseball has a deal in place with Tennessee State University to begin evaluating an over 100-acre area of land on the college campus that could house a Major League Baseball stadium that would be built for the Major League Baseball Nashville Stars franchise.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred would like to see a 32-team set up, up from the present 30. The stadium situations and resolving them in Oakland and St. Petersburg have greater priority than adding two teams. Oakland Athletics owner John Fisher has been playing Oakland against Las Vegas in the stadium game. In the Tampa Bay area Rays’ ownership continues its quest to build a ballpark. Manfred has acknowledged that Las Vegas could be a Major League Baseball market. Nashville and Portland, Oregon have been active talking about getting an MLB franchise. Montréal seems to be in limbo at the moment. Loar and Music City Baseball keep hiring baseball people with the hope of getting an MLB team.
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Don Mattingly is now part of Nashville’s push for an MLB franchise. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)