Report: Stewart-led group prepares bid for Nashville MLB expansion team originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
Major League Baseball has been locked in at 30 franchises since 1998. But that could all change in the near future.
A group led by former All-Star pitcher Dave Stewart reportedly is interested in bringing an MLB franchise to Nashville, Tenn. ESPN’s Howard Bryant first reported the news on Tuesday.
According to Stewart and Bryant’s sources, baseball’s next round of expansion is likely set to happen in the next three-to-five years.
Stewart, 65, won three World Series titles in 16 big-league seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Texas Rangers, Philadelphia Phillies, Oakland Athletics and Toronto Blue Jays. He was named World Series MVP in 1989 for the A’s.
If the bid is successful, Nashville’s franchise would become the first majority minority-owned team in MLB history. Stewart has pursued ownership stake with the A’s and the Miami Marlins in the past.
“I spoke to the commissioner a couple of weeks ago and the same thing still remains,” Stewart told ESPN. “There are two teams that don’t have (permanent long-term) homes: the Oakland A’s and the Tampa Rays, so those are his priorities to make sure those places have homes to play in. But once they do, expansion becomes next on the agenda.”
The potential ownership group also includes former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who was the first Hispanic to serve as White House Counsel in 2005. The group expects to raise $2 billion to purchase an expansion team, according to Bryant.
The proposed team name is the Nashville Stars, which honors the Negro League team that played in the city until the 1950s.
“We started this process four years ago,” Stewart said. “Nashville is a fast-growing city. It has a beautiful population of people. There’s so much going on here. So, MLB put Nashville as one of its top places for expansion, and I think that triggered the idea to go down this path.”