Ranking the Six Leading City Candidates for MLB Expansion

Last week, Sacramento officially joined the many cities angling for a major league baseball team. Let's evaluate the most promising bids.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred is looking to expand the league by two teams. | Brad Penner-Imagn Images

Major League Baseball and the MLBPA have begun trading proposals for a new collective bargaining agreement ahead of the current one that's set to expire in December. One of the core issues involved will be expansion. MLB is keen to expand to 32 teams, and plans to do so will likely be fully explored once the new CBA is in place. Cities are already angling to be considered, with local leaders formally unveiling a bid for Sacramento, Calif. last week to in an attempt to bring a permanent team to the city currently hosting the Athletics as they wait for their new stadium in Las Vegas to be built.

All reports suggest MLB is looking to add one franchise in the East and another in the West, which increases the number of target destinations.

We took a hard look at all the candidates, narrowed them down to the places we truly think have a shot to land an MLB franchise and ranked the most promising bids as I see them.

6. Montreal

This is a sentimental favorite. The Expos were MLB’s first Canadian team and began their life in 1969. In 1977, they were joined by the Blue Jays as the league attempted true international expansion. Montreal’s team mostly struggled on the field despite drafting several future Hall of Famers over the years, and in 2004, declining attendance and revenue led the franchise to relocate to Washington where it began a new life as the Nationals. Montreal’s franchise only reached the postseason once in its history. That came in 1981, though they had an MLB-best record of 74–40 when the 1994 strike hit and cancelled the rest of the season.

Montreal has a massive market, with a metro population of more than 4 million, bigger than any on this list. While attendance and interest fell off before the city lost its team, that was largely due to poor management. People still have nostalgia for the Expos, and there is no doubt that the brand still carries weight. Stephen Bronfman, the son of former Expos owner Charles Bronfman, has been pushing for MLB's return to Montreal for years. He's not alone. Baseball is also a much more international game now than it was in 2004. The Blue Jays have more than proven it can work in Canada.

The bottom line here is that MLB is hyper-aware that baseball failed in Montreal once, so giving a precious expansion franchise to the city would be a massive gamble. In 2022, MLB rejected a play to allow the Rays to split time between Tampa Bay and Montreal. It would take a huge lift for Rob Manfred and Co. to be wooed again.

5. Sacramento

Sacramento is in the middle of an audition to earn an MLB franchise, as it has been hosting the future Las Vegas Athletics for two seasons. The city wasn’t on anyone’s radar before this, but it has moved up the rankings because the league doesn’t have to project what it would like to have a team there; it already has evidence. Sacramento is also in a decent-sized media market as it teams with Stockton and Modesto to rank 20th in the U.S. It has a growing metro area that checks in at 2.68 million during the 2020 census.

While California already has five teams and is in the process of losing one, teams in the state tend to be incredibly valuable. That’s a plus in Sacramento’s favor, as is the proposal for a 35,000-plus-seat stadium in the Bridge District, which would be a 50-acre mixed-use development. The land is ready to go if the city gets the go-ahead. The “Sacramento Pitch” group has formally launched an effort to land a team and claims to have “$800 million in land and private investment.”

The big downside here is that Sacramento feels like it just came on the scene aiming for a team while bidding groups further up the list have been well-established for years. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible. There is real momentum here.

4. Charlotte

This could be Raleigh as well—Carolina Hurricanes and Portland Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon is currently leading the charge to bring baseball to North Carolina's capital—but we'll stick with Charlotte as the state's entrant here, as it has many built-in advantages. The city already supports NFL, NBA and MLS teams. That stability will be a selling point for MLB's owners. Perhaps more importantly, Charlotte brings a lot of corporate power to the table. The headquarters for Bank of America, Truist, Honeywell and Duke Energy lead the way, while Lowe's is not far from the city.

Charlotte boasts the 21st-ranked media market with more than 1.38 million TV households. Even more impressive, it is the fastest-growing city in the country, having added 20,731 people between 2024 and ‘25, tops in the country. North Carolina is currently the largest U.S. state without an MLB franchise.

The big drawback Charlotte faces is overlap from Braves territory. Much of the South currently belongs to the Atlanta-based franchise, which is an incredibly strong brand throughout the Southeast. The city doesn't currently have a dominant, well-established group pushing for a franchise. Crucially, it also faces competition for attention from Raleigh, another growing city in the state that will be under consideration. The two bids could hurt each other.

3. Portland

Portland has been angling for an MLB team for nearly a decade. The Portland Diamond Project was founded by longtime Nike executive Craig Cheek in 2017. He envisions an intimate 32,000-seat stadium located in the city's South Waterfront at Zidell Yards. It would feature a translucent, retractable glass roof and cost an estimated $2 billion.

Cheek claims the city could break ground on a waterfront MLB stadium as early as 2027 if it is awarded a team. Oregon has already passed a bill authorizing $800 million in bonds earmarked for a potential stadium. It features a creative strategy that imposes a targeted income tax on visiting MLB players and their spouses, which means the local population won't fund the project.

Portland features the nation’s 23rd-largest media market with more than 1.2 million TV households. The issue is that the city has not grown as much as other competitors in recent years. The lack of corporate money in the city is also a drawback when it comes to sponsorships and the purchase of luxury suites. The Rose City is still in the mix, but it has fallen off a bit over the past few years.

2. Salt Lake City

Big League Utah has been pushing hard for an MLB expansion team for several years now and has firmly established Salt Lake City as a real contender for a team. The effort is backed by the Miller family, who previously owned the Utah Jazz from 1985 through 2020, giving them deep credibility in the sports ownership world.

Perhaps most importantly, there are already plans for a stadium if the city is selected. A $3.5 billion mixed-use “Power District” is planned, with an MLB ballpark as the centerpiece. The Salt Lake City market ranks 28th in the United States, with more than 1 million homes. Both the Jazz and the NHL’s Mammoth enjoy robust fan support, making projections for baseball's success in the market fairly easy.

1. Nashville

Nashville appears to be the current leader among Eastern cities, and it feels almost like a formality that the city will eventually land an MLB team. The media market ranks 25th in the U.S. and serves more than 1.1 million households.

The city also supports its current teams as the Titans averaged 58,893 fans per game in 2025 despite a 3–14 record, and the Predators averaged 17,236 per game during a 2025-26 campaign in which they didn’t make the playoffs. Their arena holds 17,113 people, so the team was beyond "full capacity" every night.

Since 2019, a group named Music City Baseball has been pushing strongly for an expansion franchise called the Nashville Stars. The name would be an homage to the Negro League team that lasted from the 1930s until the 1950s.

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