First Horizon Park, Nashville (AAA #19 - The Next Major League City?)
Will Nashville have a major league baseball team within five years? At the moment, that seems a real possibility. There are currently 30 MLB teams, divided into two leagues, each of which has three divisions with five teams in it. The distinction between leagues and divisions, once significant, is now arbitrary. The current commissioner of baseball Rob Manfred, has been quoted as saying that he would like to have plans in place by 2029 to expand to 32 teams, so that there would eight divisions of four teams each. I found good articles by FOX Sports and ESPN that discuss the rationale and the leading candidate cities. The most recent article I could find was from this spring from the Deseret News in Salt Lake City , giving the local take on a survey by The Athletic (it’s behind a paywall, so I won’t link that story). There are several cities that have official efforts to bring in major league baseball, complete with websites, baseball celebrity endorsements...