Dave Stewart
After several years of anticipation, it appears that Major League Baseball may soon be expanding its league by two teams. As of now MLB has 30 teams, but as ESPN reported last year, Commissioner Rob Manfred has been pushing for the addition of two new teams. Rumors have been circulating about potential expansion cities, and Nashville is among the top contenders.
Music City Baseball (aka the “Nashville Stars”) is the local management group working to bring MLB to Nashville. The Nashville Stars is also the proposed name for an MLB team, should it arrive in Nashville, and would honor a semi-pro Negro Leagues team that existed in the mid-20th century. According to Sportskeeda.com: “If the Nashville Stars were set to become the next expansion team in Major League Baseball, they would be the first new franchise since 1998. … If Major League Baseball approves the expansion, the franchise would become the first to honor a team name from the Negro Leagues.”
Former MLB pitcher Dave Stewart, a member of the Nashville Stars’ board, is leading the diverse equity ownership initiative. According to the Stars’ website, “Stewart was a legendary Major League Baseball All-Star with the Oakland A’s as well as the general manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks … [and] is a 3× World Series Champion.” Additional leaders in Music City Baseball include veteran real estate developer John Loar and former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Early in this venture, I traveled with John Loar to several cities exploring the possibilities. Other longtime friends — like Reese Smith III, whose name is synonymous with baseball in Tennessee — are also excited about this possibility. And we’re not the only ones. Former MLB All-Star Don Mattingly has also joined the Nashville Stars as an adviser — and according to a January story from The Tennessean, he did so because he believes “the approach that Dave Stewart and his team have in Nashville is exactly what the game of baseball needs.” Mattingly added that more diversity is needed in baseball, and that “it starts from the top down.”
If the stars align (pun intended), Stewart would like to see the Stars “play their first regular-season game on Opening Day of 2026.”
The city’s economy is also pretty well-suited to support a Major League Baseball team. The Nashville Business Journal reported in December that Nashville’s gross domestic product is growing at a faster rate than the national average: “All 13 counties in the metro area posted GDP growth in 2021, led by Davidson County’s 13.8% increase.” In addition to its favorable economic climate, Nashville is also geographically well-positioned for a Major League Baseball team. The city is centrally located — and there are no MLB teams currently located in Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina or Kentucky.
All this said, we have been on the radar as a potential expansion city since 2018. So while an MLB team would be one more feather in Nashville’s already well-adorned cap, we can’t know if and when this will actually come about. And bringing a Major League Baseball team to Nashville would not be without its challenges.
One major hurdle would be the construction of a new stadium. An area near TSU is already under consideration for its placement. In addition to the expansion efforts, there’s the possibility a team could relocate here, though finding an interested team could be a challenge. Earlier hopes had been resting on the Tampa Bay Rays relocating, but as Commissioner Manfred recently said, Rays principal shareholder Stuart Sternberg is “much more positive about being able to get something done in Tampa — which I think is the right answer for baseball — [and] that puts Nashville in the expansion category.” The prospect of expansion might encourage some teams to make the move, especially if they are struggling in their current markets. But let’s not forget about our minor league team the Nashville Sounds. What would an MLB team coming to our city mean for them? Back in 2020, The Tennessean reported that Sounds owner Frank Ward said if Nashville gets an MLB team, “the Sounds would leave Nashville and go look for another Triple-A city.”
But overall, the possibility of Nashville joining the MLB lineup is an exciting one for sports fans in the city and across the region. Only time will tell if Major League Baseball decides to expand to Nashville and whether residents will get to cheer on their own team. Like many others, I’m hoping for the best.
Bill Freeman
Bill Freeman is the owner of FW Publishing, the publishing company that produces the Nashville Scene, Nfocus, the Nashville Post, and The News.
