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Why Dave Stewart left Music City Baseball, how he plans to bring MLB team to Nashville
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- Why Dave Stewart left Music City Baseball, how he plans to bring MLB team to Nashville
Dave Stewart wants to bring a Major League Baseball team to Nashville .
The former MLB All-Star pitcher, three-time World Series champion and former MLB general manager just won't be working as an adviser with Music City Baseball group to try to do it.
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Stewart parted ways with the group in November, citing "philosophical differences," and decided to pursue the venture via his own avenues. He said he remains committed to putting together a diverse ownership group to bring an MLB expansion team to Nashville, and added that he has the financial backing to privately fund the $3.5 billion-plus it likely will take to do so, something Music City Baseball does not yet have.
Former all star pitcher Dave Stewart leads the ownership group that wants to bring Major League Baseball to Nashville.
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"I put people in front of (Music City Baseball) who were capable of doing what needed to be done (financially)," Stewart told The Tennessean . "They questioned me and who my people were. Quite frankly, it was insulting."
Diversity still Dave Stewart's focus
Music City Baseball managing partner John Loar called his group's approach to funding the endeavor "more agnostic" than Stewart's.
"Dave is very specific in putting an ownership group together," Loar told The Tennessean last week after Music City Baseball made a presentation to the Rotary Club of Nashville. "Diversity was really his focus on it. It made more sense (to part ways), because he would like to have more involvement and more control over that, to go do that."
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Which is what Stewart ultimately decided to do in November.
"Somewhere along the line, John Loar did not really grasp what that means, or, for that matter, some of the board members of Music City Baseball," Stewart said of his idea of a diverse ownership group. "Some of the ownership commitments I have, they're white, they're Asian, they're Hispanic, they're Black."
Dave Stewart, fired in 2016, was the most recent African-American general manager in baseball.
Dave Stewart on bringing MLB to Nashville
In a statement emailed to The Tennessean last week, Music City Baseball spokesperson John Crisp said his group's focus is on "building community support for the Nashville Stars brand and its strong association with the historic Negro Leagues, moving forward with the real estate objective for a future ballpark, and developing a local foundation to a diverse ownership group that we will continue to build upon."
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The statement also referred to Stewart as a "friend who has had a great career in the game of baseball" who "shares our same objective of bringing Major League Baseball to Nashville."
"We're just different in how we think and what we want to do," said Stewart, who said he has "no hard feelings at all" toward Music City Baseball. "What I say publicly is what I do behind closed doors. They do what they do."
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has mentioned Nashville as a possible expansion city, and said recently his goal is to have a two-team expansion process in place by the time his term ends in early 2029. Under that timeline, those teams likely wouldn't begin play until 2031 at the earliest.
Aaron Saldana, 12, left, meets former pitcher, Dave Stewart, right, at Innings Festival 2022 in Tempe Beach Park.
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Stewart, who was part of a group that tried to buy the Miami Marlins in 2017, told The Tennessean he has verbal agreements and nonbinding contracts signed with "five or six" investors.
"I'm not concerned about the money," Stewart said, adding that his investors are "fully prepared" to privately fund expansion fees, a new stadium and the real estate to build it on.
MLB beyond Nashville
Stewart said he's in regular contact with the commissioner's office, adding that he and former Tennessee governor and soon-to-be Nashville Predators majority owner Bill Haslam met with Manfred in December during the winter meetings in Nashville.
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While a potential baseball team is years down the road, Stewart said there's plenty to do in the meantime. He said he wants to help build communities, wants to support HBCUs such as Tennessee State University , a possible stadium location. He wants to improve youth baseball programs. He wants MLB in Nashville to reach beyond the city, to places he recently has visited, such as Memphis and Chattanooga. And to places like Knoxville, where he plans to visit.
"I'm not spending a whole lot of time talking to rotaries," Stewart said. "I'm talking to people in the community and finding out what their needs are and trying to figure out how I can help assist in those areas."
Paul Skrbina is a sports enterprise reporter covering the Predators, Titans, Nashville SC, local colleges and local sports for The Tennessean. Reach him at pskrbina@tennessean.com and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @paulskrbina . Follow his work here .
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Dave Stewart's Nashville MLB plans after split from Music City Baseball
