Major League Baseball is expected to expand from 30 teams to 32 at some point in the future. Several cities have been floated as possibilities over the years, including Nashville, Salt Lake City, Portland and Orlando. In recent weeks, Vancouver and Sacramento have thrown their hats in the ring. Gary Mason of The Globe and Mail provided more details on the Vancouver situation last month while Evan Drellich of The Athletic and Maury Brown of Forbes reported on Sacramento’s bid this week.
A group led by real estate developer Zack Ross is pushing a Vancouver proposal that appears to be backed by mayor Ken Sim. The city council recently passed a motion directing staff to begin the procurement process through an unsolicited bid proposal.
Vancouver already hosts the Canadiens, a Single-A affiliate of the Blue Jays. Per Mason’s piece, Ross was asked by the group to look for a place to build a new stadium. Nat Bailey Stadium, where the Canadians play, was built in 1951. While going through that process, he had the idea of pursuing a major league club. The group headed to 20 acres of city-owned land on the south bank of False Creek. Now he is looking for investors. Architecture firm Populous, which designed the Las Vegas Sphere, put together the renderings of the stadium.
The piece says the owners of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers have expressed interest, as has actor Ryan Reynolds. Reynolds was born and raised in Vancouver and is already a co-owner of Wrexham AFC, as documented in the TV show Welcome to Wrexham, which raised the club’s profile. Jed York, the principal owner of the 49ers, also owns the Leeds and Rangers soccer teams. Mason is also talking to the owners of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken as interested.
It is difficult to say how much money will be needed for the new team, but it could be in the billions. As noted by Drellich, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred released a total of $2.2 billion in potential expansion money back in 2021. That was before Steve Cohen bought the Mets for $2.4 billion and José E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones agreed to buy the Padres for $3.9 billion. Presumably, the price has gone up since Manfred said those words.
Vancouver’s performance as a market is somewhat contradictory. As Mason points out, Major League Soccer is looking to move the Whitecaps from Vancouver to the American market, something that may not reflect well on investor confidence in the city. Vancouver supports the NHL’s Canucks and received an expansion franchise to the NBA in 1995, but the Grizzlies moved to Memphis in 2001. The Lions have played in the Canadian Football League since 1954. The popularity of baseball in the area can be seen whenever the Blue Jays play in Seattle, as it spreads across the border for those Canadian fans.
Although Vancouver is nowhere near Toronto, most of Canada is considered the home of the Blue Jays. That doesn’t seem to be much of a problem. Per Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet, Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro said the Jays will support the team in Vancouver. “We support any effort to grow baseball in Canada, and that would include the opportunity to bring MLB to Vancouver,” Shapiro said.
Nicholson-Smith also cites Manfred, from the 2025 postseason, who broadly supports the idea of a second team in Canada. “There is no place you will go where you are not separated from the market,” said Manfred. “About four clubs think that Nashville is part of their market. I’m not kidding. Actually, they do. So whenever you expand, grow a business, you have another point of income. You’re going to get a big paycheck when you come in and one of the things that happens is somebody else’s market gets a little bit more profitable, so there’s no different place in Canada. Stay away from Toronto.” The Montreal Expos and Jays co-existed in MLB for many years, starting with the formation of the Jays in 1977, but the Expos struggled to make that arrangement work. They moved to Washington in 2005 and became the Nationals.
Geographically, Vancouver is closer to Seattle, but the Mariners may be on board. As noted by Tim Booth of the Seattle Times, the Mariners would likely be more concerned about Portland acquiring the team, as they would consider that area part of their current property. Since Vancouver is widely seen as Jays country, the M’s may not be too concerned about the team there, and may accept the implications of the move. Seattle is so isolated on the MLB map that they currently have to travel large distances for every road game. The team in Vancouver will lead to a few road games with modest travel, while not significantly affecting the club’s property rights.
Turning to Sacramento, West Sacramento mayor Martha Guerrero announced last week that the city will pursue an MLB expansion club. A A local real estate developer named Mark Friedman is leading the charge to sell the property to a major league club permanently. West Sacramento, a separate city from Sacramento but part of the same city, is the temporary home of the Athletics. Ideally, that would give the district a proof of concept, but the A’s haven’t drawn large crowds to Sutter Health Park.
The party was not discouraged by that, expressing the belief that the number of candidates would be greater if the area had its own party, instead of just passing through. The group does not have a lead investor but says it already has $800MM in place in terms of real estate and private equity investments. They also say they have access to $1 billion in public funding. They are looking at a 50-acre site in West Sacramento, which includes the Sutter Health Park.
“We may choose to build a new stadium next to the existing stadium, then demolish it, or we may choose to demolish the existing stadium and build a new one in the same location,” said Friedman. “We haven’t gotten to the design part of this yet, and we’re waiting until we bring in a lead investor, because that person will undoubtedly want to put their stamp on what the project looks like.” Brown notes that Sacramento natives Dusty Baker and Derrek Lee are involved in the game, although the extent of their involvement is unclear.
As a market, Sacramento supports the NBA’s Kings. They also had the Monarchs in the WNBA since 1997 but that team folded in 2009. The River Cats, the Triple-A affiliate of the Giants, are the permanent host team at Sutter Health Park. They share the field with the A’s for the 2025 to 2027 seasons while the A’s finish their stadium in Las Vegas. Sutter Health Park and the River Cats own the Kings.
At this point, the possibility of expansion is still theoretical. Manfred has always said he would like the A’s and Rays to find long-term plans for the stadium before expansion is on the table. The A’s are on track to be in Las Vegas for the start of the 2028 season but the Rays are still in limbo.
The Rays have a lease at Tropicana Field through 2028 but have no other option beyond that. The new owners are in talks with the city of Tampa and Hillsborough County about a new stadium plan. Per Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times, the team and state officials have agreed to a memorandum of understanding on a plan to build a $2.3 billion stadium near Raymond James Stadium, home of the NFL’s Buckeyes, but the MOU is not binding. Under the plan, the county will contribute $796MM and the city $180MM, with the Rays covering the rest and any accruals and adjustments. The club will also spend 8 to 10 billion dollars on mixed construction around the stadium.
It’s not clear if they can jump through the next hoops to keep the job. As Topkin notes, the Tampa city council passed the non-binding MOU 4-3 but councilman Bill Carlson plans to change his vote on the actual agreement. He only voted “yes” to the non-binding MOU to continue negotiations for now. If something can’t be done in Tampa/St. Petersburg, is expected to continue moving to Orlando.
Drellich notes that MLB may prefer that the expansion zones be split into one west and one east. If that turns out to be true, then Vancouver and Sacramento can compete against each other, as well as Salt Lake City and Portland.
The current collective bargaining agreement between MLB and the MLBPA expires this coming December 1st and negotiations are still ongoing. Expansion is something that should not be discussed jointly between those two parties and is likely to come up in those discussions. Manfred said he would like to make progress in that area before his expected departure in January 2029. On the other hand, there are important things that are important in those discussions and the expansion may continue until the rays get a solid plan.
Photo courtesy of Dennis Lee, Imagn Images
