It’s been a long time since Major League Baseball expanded into a new market. MLB expanded into four new cities in the 1990s—two in 1993 and two in 1998—but a quarter century has passed since the latter expansion and MLB remains at 30 teams.
But the times, they are a-changing. Expansion within the next decade isn’t a question of “if” but a question of “when.” There are two main driving forces for this, though both are two sides of the same coin, and commissioner Rob Manfred discussed it this past July.
Despite its array of problems, league sources say baseball has grown into a $10 billion-plus-a-year sport, up from $8 billion when Manfred became commissioner.