Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred made headlines this past week when he announced that expanding the league with multiple new teams was one of his goals in the coming years. New details have now emerged regarding some of the specifics of MLB expansion.
USA Today‘s Bob Nightengale wrote Sunday that MLB expansion has been the league’s plan for “at least the past decade.” Now starting to move forward with that plan, MLB is “scheduled” to expand in 2031 or 2032, with Salt Lake City and Nashville viewed as the “two heavy favorites” for expansion franchises.
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There are several reasons why Manfred and club owners are going to start pushing harder for MLB expansion. A significant reason is the money, especially since Manfred stated in 2021 that the expansion fee at that time would be approximately $2.2 billion to add a team.
The price on that may be now even higher. In July, Stu Sternberg sold the Tampa Bay Rays for $1.7 billion. That was just a few months removed from a Forbes franchise valuation of $1.25 billion. As of the 2025 MLB season, Forbes believes that 16 of the 30 clubs are worth at least $2 billion.
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Manfred has also stated in the past that MLB expansion wouldn’t happen until the Rays and Athletics figure out their stadium situations. The A’s new ballpark in Las Vegas is expected to open for the 2028 season and the Rays’ new ownership is keeping the team in the region.
As for the league’s reported plans to award expansion franchises to Nashville and Salt Lake City, it would be decisions that were years in the making. Nashville has been positioning itself to receive an expansion club, with a group led by many prominent figures in baseball.
The Music City Baseball ownership group, with the planned team name of the Nashville Stars, includes several prominent former athletes, such as Eddie George, Barry Zito, and R.A. Dickey, along with legendary MLB managers Don Mattingly, Tony La Russa, and Bruce Bochy, who have all been part of the effort to bring an MLB team to Nashville. If it happens, the team will be named the Nashville Stars.
As for Salt Lake City, another top-30 media market, the group Big League Utah is among those pushing to bring an MLB team to Utah. Heavily backed by the Larry H. Miller Company and the Miller family, Nightengale’s reporting suggests that Salt Lake City has more support from the league office than Portland, Oregon.
The Miller Sports + Entertainment Company (MSE), backed by the Miller Family, acquired controlling interests in Real Salt Lake (Major League Soccer) and the Utah Royals FC (National Women’s Soccer League) earlier this year. Being approved for MLB expansion would give Utah a pro sports franchise in three of the four major leagues.
