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.
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.
