MLB Ownership Group Eyes South’s Fastest-Growing Sports Hub

Major League Baseball has not announced any expansion plans beyond its current 30 teams, but a group headed by retired ace Dave Stewart is ready for the moment it does.

Stewart was tapped by Music City Baseball to helm a group looking to bring an MLB team to Nashville.

• Stewart is prioritizing minority investors, saying, “The time has come for Black ownership in Major League Baseball.”
• He said the group plans to raise $2 billion to purchase an expansion team.
• MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said last year that $2.2 billion would be “a lodestar in terms of evaluating expansion opportunity.”

The league’s current priority is to find new homes for the Oakland A’s and Tampa Bay Rays, but once those situations are settled, it is widely believed that the league will look to add teams.

The planned name for the Nashville team is the Stars, an homage to the Negro League team that played there in the 1940s and 1950s.

Music City Moves

Nashville has quickly become one of the South’s major sports hubs.

The city gained the NHL’s Nashville Predators in 1998 and the NFL’s Tennessee Titans the following year. Nashville Soccer Club joined MLS in 2020. The city played host to the NFL Draft in 2019 and hopes to do it again in 2024 or 2025.

Meanwhile, the Titans are in negotiations with the local government on a new stadium, and in August, the city will host IndyCar’s Music City Grand Prix, which debuted last year.