Sandbox / Major League Baseball

Expansion and Relocation Candidates

Since late 2020, there have been rumblings around the majors of possible expansion, with Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, Mexico City, Monterrey, Montreal (for a potential Expos revival), Nashville, Orlando, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, and Vancouver being among the top candidate cities for expansion or relocation. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred had previously stated that expansion would not be a priority until the stadium situations for both the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays were settled.^note The A's home, the Oakland Coliseum, has been in use since 1968 and is the last of the poor-quality "cookie cutter" stadiums. The Rays' home, Tropicana Field, is also rather old and low quality (being built in 1991 with a Tampa Bay expansion team in mind) and is in the hard-to-reach city of St. Petersburg. As of 2024, however, this roadblock has essentially been lifted, since the Athletics have been confirmed to relocate to Las Vegas (though no earlier than 2028, assuming everything goes right).^note  As 2024 is the last year of the current stadium deal between the A's and the Coliseum, and a new Vegas ballpark won't be ready until '28, the team will call Sacramento their interim home between 2025 and NET 2027. Meanwhile, the Rays have announced they will build a new ballpark adjacent to Tropicana Field, with an opening date of no later than 2028. More information about some of the expansion candidates can be viewed in the folder below.

Expansion and Relocation Candidates

Nashville, Tennessee

The capital of Tennessee has been a frontrunner for a potential MLB team, especially since the Oilers/Titans, Predators, and Grizzlies in Memphis already beat them to the punch by more than twenty years.^note And if you include Major League Soccer, you also have Nashville SC existing since 2020. However, Nashville has been no stranger to baseball throughout its history, thanks in part to Vanderbilt University's historically successful program (especially compared to the Commodores' Butt-Monkey status in football). They have also been home to the minor league Nashville Sounds, who are the AAA affiliate of the Brewers and have been calling the city home since 1978. Although some have complained that Nashville is in "Braves Country," the city's growth in the past three decades—the metro area more than doubling in population since 1990—has nonetheless caught the attention of MLB, who had the city host their Winter Meetings in 2015 and 2023. One must also mention Music City Baseball, an expansionary bidding group aiming to establish an MLB team in Nashville. Their planned ball club's name would be the Nashville Stars, honoring an old Negro League team from the 1930s and 1940s that shared the name.

Salt Lake City, Utah

Despite its smaller size, Salt Lake City stands with Nashville as the two prime candidates for a new major league team to call home. The sport has had existing professionalism for over a century in the minor leagues, with the current iteration belonging to the Salt Lake Bees, the AAA affiliate for the Los Angeles Angels. The region is also home to two teams in the four major pro leagues: the Utah Jazz since 1979, and their currently unnamed NHL team since 2024.^note Again, if you count soccer, there's also Real Salt Lake since 2005. The city has been very aggressive towards adding new teams, especially upon noting how Jazz owner Ryan Smith got the new NHL team through relocating the roster and front office of the Arizona Coyotes in a deal reminiscent of the Cleveland Browns-Baltimore Ravens situation. MLB is almost certainly the next target; former Jazz owner Larry Miller's widow Gail founded a bidding group named Big League Utah in April of 2023, and Utah's state legislature passed a law stating that any new MLB team would need to have "Utah" as its regional moniker instead of "Salt Lake" or "Salt Lake City." Additionally, Utah has the benefit of not encroaching on any existing team's current or future markets, with the closest neighbors being the Rockies in Denver and the Athletics in Las Vegas.

Charlotte or Raleigh-Durham area, North Carolina

Another quickly growing region of the United States is the state of North Carolina, which has skyrocketed from 6.6 million to more than 10 million residents over the past thirty years. The state is unique for MLB, thanks to the fact that they have two potential options to place a new team: Charlotte (home to the Panthers, Hornets, and Charlotte FC) and the capital region of Raleigh and Durham (home to the Hurricanes, as well as Duke, UNC, and NC State). Both metropolitan areas are also deeply tied to baseball in their histories; the Queen City is currently home to the Charlotte Knights, the AAA affiliate to the White Sox, while the Research Triangle is home to the historic Durham Bulls, the AAA affiliate to the Rays. In addition, both regions have their pros and cons for Major League Baseball to place a potential expansion team. Charlotte as a city is bigger than Raleigh and Durham combined and is already home to more professional sports teams, but there hasn't been any big expansionary group (as evidenced by a lack of a stadium submission to its city council) as well as it potentially conflicting with "Braves Country" or a Nashville expansion bid. Raleigh-Durham meanwhile is much more active in terms of wanting an MLB team (with Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon saying he intends to be a bidder for an expansion team), but such a team might have the same corporate support and attendance issues during losing seasons thanks to the distance from Charlotte, something that has been criticized about the Hurricanes before their current bout of success since 2018.

Portland, Oregon

Much like Montreal, Portland has been a fan favorite in regards to where to potentially put an expansion team. With the population of about 2.5 million, Portland is at present the largest metropolitan area with sports teams (being the Trail Blazers and the Timbers) that MLB doesn't have a team in currently. That's not to say that it's no stranger to baseball: the city was historically home to the minor-league Portland Beavers, who on-and-off called Portland their home from their establishment in 1903 to 2010, when they relocated to El Paso and became the Chihuahuas. Among fans of existing teams, one reason cited about adding a team in Oregon would be that it would relieve a bunch of traveling pressure from the nearby Seattle Mariners, thanks to the fact that the nearest MLB ballpark to Seattle is Oracle Park all the way in San Francisco. And that's not even considering leagues, where their closest AL neighbor are the Oakland Athletics; and given their impending relocations, that would mean that it by 2028 the M's closest rival would be located all the way in Las Vegas. In terms of bidding groups, the city has the Portland Diamond Project, who have since 2017 lobbied for an expansion MLB team to be added in Portland. This group has tried numerous places in mind to build a major league ballpark, including the public school department's headquarters, Terminal 2 at the port, and Lloyd Center in downtown Portland.

Montreal, Quebec

Montreal is different in comparison to the rest of the potential expansion candidates, and that's not just because of its Francophone population. The city was home to the Expos from 1969 to 2004, after which stadium and ownership issues forced them to relocate to Washington DC and become the Nationals. As such, the city has been a favorite among various baseball fanbases for an expansion team, albeit more in the form of "Bring back the Expos!" compared to an actual expansion team. Montreal has some additional benefits too, being the second-largest city in Canada (and the market size that entails), having active support among residents and government officials for an Expos return, and already being home to the Canadiens and CF Montreal in other pro sports leagues. However, the city also has some difficulties: first and foremost, they'd need to build the stadium before a team gets established, as there would be little patience for a temporary bout in Olympic Stadium considering how it was a major reason for the Expos' departure. Additionally, Montreal already had an expansion bid fail in the past couple of years, thanks to MLB putting the kibosh on their proposed split season for the Tampa Bay Rays^note Where the Rays would play half their home games in St. Petersburg and the other half in Montreal. in 2022. Nonetheless, there is a clear passion of a return of baseball in the city, something that MLB might keep its eye on in preparation of the next round of expansion.