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Why is Nashville continually brought up in MLB expansion discussions? Executives explain
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- Why is Nashville continually brought up in MLB expansion discussions? Executives explain
Tony LaRussa chatted with a Chicago White Sox reporter midafternoon Tuesday in one of the hallways that make up the maze that is the Garylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center .
A few feet behind the Hall of Famer stood one of his former players, Dave Stewart .
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The two won a World Series together in 1988 with the Oakland Athletics — LaRussa the manager and Stewart the menacing pitcher.
Both were pitchers last week at the annual Major League Baseball winter meetings .
They were pitching MLB in Nashville.
LaRussa and Stewart are part of the same team again, as advisers for Music City Baseball , a group intent on bringing MLB to the city.
Texas Rangers GM: Nashville 'would be wonderful place for MLB'
A few hundred yards away, in a place called an Opryland ballroom, a 6-foot-10 man leaned against a padded wall.
Four or five reporters fired questions at him.
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His name is Chris Young. He's the general manager of the 2023 World Series champion Texas Rangers.
He's also an almost-Vanderbilt player who instead opted to play for Princeton.
"I don't know the economics and all the other elements that go into expansion, but I can speak from my personal experience, that Nashville is a tremendous city," said Young, who spent 13 seasons as a pitcher in the big leagues. "I love this city.
"Great culture, and I'm sure it would be a wonderful place for Major League Baseball. But I don't make those decisions."
A poll of more than 100 players done this year by The Athletic revealed that 69% favored Nashville as an expansion city. Montreal was next closest at 10%.
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Commissioner Rob Manfred in 2018 named Nashville among a list of possible destination cities for MLB. He reiterated that point again earlier this year.
"I think Nashville you have to think about as an expansion candidate," Manfred said in April.
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Economics is one hurdle a Nashville team would have to clear. It has been estimated that expansion fees alone could be as much as $2.2 billion when MLB decides to add teams.
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Throw in another few billion for a stadium.
Stewart said Music City Baseball would not rely on public funding, but rather on private investors.
"I believe in new beginnings," Stewart told The Tennessean earlier this year. "If we can get a new franchise, and as I said, start our own tradition and our own legacies, I'd prefer it to be that way.
"It's kind of fitting for Nashville because a lot of people are moving here, a lot of businesses are moving here. It's a new beginning for those people . . . so it just kind of fits with what's taking place in the city."
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Major League Soccer expanded here. The NFL draft was held here. The NHL draft , too. Not to mention the return of NASCAR in recent years.
Twenty-five years ago the city welcomed the Oilers from Houston in the NFL and the expansion Predators in the NHL.
Will Major League Baseball be next?
Pirates GM Ben Cherington: 'Something about this place'
Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Ben Cherington, too, said he couldn't speak to the money part of the equation when it comes to bringing MLB to Nashville.
The idea, though, Cherington said, makes sense.
"The city has become a landing spot for baseball people, that's for sure," he said. "Even without a major league team here, it's amazing how many players live here, staff, baseball employees."
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Baseball stars such as Bryce Harper have decided to call the area home. Rangers manager Bruce Bochy , too.
Cherington also pointed to the college programs as a reason Middle Tennessee is a baseball hotbed.
"The adjacent baseball infrastructure in this city is really significant," he said. "There's something about this place that's made it a landing spot for baseball.
"A high degree of interest in the game here and it's not surprising that it gets mentioned in that light."
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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Will Major League Baseball come to Nashville? Some executives hope so
