MLB has only one more hurdle to overcome before expansion begins. Once the league and the union agree on a new CBA, Commissioner Rob Manfred will form an expansion committee, officially kicking off the process to become 32 teams. Before he retires in 2029, Manfred wants to see two new teams. Raleigh on the East Coast and Salt Lake City on the West Coast have met the major criteria, emerging as the frontrunners. MLB insiders have now sat down to discuss the massive expansion cost.
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“The number that Passan wrote about in his article was upwards of two and a half per team…So let’s say it’s three billion per team. So $6 billion for two teams is my guess around there,” said Scott Braun on Foul Territory.
“So each team gets $200 million out of that. Something like that,” replied AJ Pierzynsky, doing the quick math.
After the Hillsborough County Commission approved $796 million in public funding for the Tampa Bay Rays to build a new stadium, and the Athletics’ new home park started in Las Vegas, all attention turned to MLB’s expansion plans despite the impending CBA battle. The league and the union won’t fight on this one.
An expansion is beneficial to both.
For players, it means more work, and for the owners, it means more money. 1998 had the last MLB expansion when the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (now Tampa Bay Rays) joined the league, with a fee of $130 million per team.
This time, the expansion committee will decide which cities will welcome the new teams. But ESPN’s Jeff Passan has listed three must-have factors:
A strong ownership group, locked-in stadium funding, and a site to build the stadium.
Salt Lake City and Raleigh check all of the above.
The ownership group, the Larry H. Miller Company, has already pledged $3.5 billion to Salt Lake City for a 100-acre development. The State of Utah has also pledged to cover half of the stadium building cost and has extended support worth $900 million.
The stadium is already under construction at the Power District. The ownership group is confident that the West Coast team is coming to Salt Lake City.
“The Miller Group is designing the actual stadium right now. They have the design partners. We know what this is going to be, what this is going to look like,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox told Passan.
“It’s going to take other municipalities and other states a long time to catch up just on that piece alone.”
As for the East Coast, Raleigh, North Carolina, is a dark horse that has emerged as one of the frontrunners.
It is the only other city with billionaire backing, and it’s not only Tom Dundon of MLB Raleigh.
Former Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry has also shown interest in the project. Despite North Carolina state’s refusal to provide $500 million for a ballpark, the presence of an ownership group keeps the city a favorite for expansion in the East. Moreover, it also has a decent media market.
“By the time an expansion team arrives, North Carolina projects to be the seventh-largest state by population — and the top six all have multiple MLB teams. It’s got three top-50 markets in Raleigh, Charlotte, and Greensboro,” Passan noted, per ESPN.
Though a stadium site has not yet been decided, Dundon, owner of the Carolina Hurricanes and Portland Trail Blazers, has development rights for 80 acres near the Lenovo Center.
“The heavy lifting in Raleigh has already been done. At this point, it’s just crossing T’s and dotting I’s. All the pieces are here. The money’s ready. The owner’s ready. I don’t think another market can say this,” said Lou Pascucci of MLB Raleigh.
“I mean, I think maybe Salt Lake City may have their pieces together like we do, but this has been under the radar, and I think that’s by design. And as we’re getting closer here, I think pieces are going to start falling into place.”
The MLB expansion fee is set to be well above the initially announced $2 billion, especially after the Angels and Padres sales.
According to insiders on Foul Territory, it will be $3 billion per team. But with how the Larry H. Miller Company is progressing, they are unlikely to balk at the amount.
If Raleigh has two billionaire groups investing, they should not have a problem with the fee either. So each of the 30 existing team owners can expect $200 million from the funds collected from new groups.
Portland, Nashville, Orlando, and Montreal are also in the expansion race.