ESPN Senior MLB Insider Jeff Passan joins Cheddar News to discuss Major League Baseball's plans to expand from 30 to 32 teams, once the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays eventually decide on a home field location. When expansion does happen, will new owners be willing to pay a franchise fee of $2 billion or more? “They're perfectly happy to buy into it at that price, because … owning a sports team isn't just about the money that you make while doing so, which is significant, but it's about being a small, exclusive group of people. … There are only 30 Major League Baseball franchise owners right now and those things are like Willy Wonka's golden ticket.”

Closing Bell

Major League Baseball Eyeing Expansion to 32 Teams

Okay, well, Major League Baseball and Commissioner Robert Manfred are at a crossroads right now as they push on in the longest period of expansion drought since 1961? The league has been forced to wait for a resolution of the home ballpark situations for the rays and athletics, putting off their goal of expansion from 30 to 32 teams until they find new homes. So joining me now is ESPN senior MLB Insider, Jeff, Passan Jeff, it's good to see you seems like the owners and players they are on the same page. How soon do you anticipate? We might see some expansion of the MLB Kristen, we've been waiting for a resolution of the Oakland A's stadium situation for 20 years, so it's not like this is something that I'm anticipating is going to definitively happen any time soon. But Rob Bamford has come out and said publicly that he believes there needs to be in the near term resolution for both Oakland and Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay. Remember had the plan in place that it wanted to split between Tampa Bay and Montreal half of its games that ended up dying on the vine. And so the rays have been looking for a decade plus now for a new stadium in the Tampa ST Pete area. But Oakland, it looks like it's either gonna be Oakland or las Vegas and once those things get resolved then they can look to expand and reap the multibillion dollar expansion piece that come with it? Okay, so what do you think are the odds here of relocation or expansion? Which one happens, do you think Jeff at least first? Um I think relocation probably is going to happen in at least one of those situations, and Oakland seems the likeliest right now. Now it's possible that Oakland City Council, which has been trying to figure out whether to keep the A's around for a long time, now, ends up striking the stadium deal, something that's mutually amenable with the organization. But if not, Las Vegas is clearly a very viable backup plan for the A's we've seen with the Golden Knights as well as the Raiders, that Las Vegas is a city that can support professional baseball team, professional sports teams rather. And if it's not the A's that go there. Las Vegas right at the top of the list, along with Nashville, Austin charlotte is potential expansion site. Well, I know last year Manfred the MLB commissioner did suggest an expansion franchise fee North of two billion. How attractive Jeff Do you think that figure is for prospective new owners? Oh, they're perfectly happy to buy into it at that price, because as we've seen across the entire major professional sports landscape in the United States, owning a sports team isn't just about the money that you make while doing so, which is significant, but it's about being a small, exclusive group of people and you know, there are only 30 major League Baseball franchise owners right now and those things are like Willy Wonka's golden ticket. So the idea that Major League Baseball and the owners could essentially split up $4 million among them for just expanding for getting larger tv rights going forward. It's, it's a mutually beneficial thing, especially when you look at the potential realignment in Major League Baseball right now, there are six divisions with five teams. The idea of having 8, 14 divisions and having it more geographically motivated is something that I think a lot of people in baseball really life interesting. I do want you to talk more about the impact of that. If we do see realignment fans of baseball like that, what would that do for the overall leak? I think realignment has a chance to make travel shorter for players first off. And this is something that in next season's schedule it's going to be a balanced schedule as opposed to an unbalanced one that we've seen in years past. And I think the travel is gonna wear on players frankly now don't get me wrong, I don't feel too bad for guys who are flying in first class accommodation on private jets everywhere they're going. So You know, this is a very first world problem. But when you play 162 games in a season, that's the sort of thing that can wear on you. So in that respect, I think for players it would probably be a good thing um for for teams and for the league, the idea that you can have uh, you know, four division winners in either two or three wild cards as opposed to three division winners with three wild cards right now. Look, every general manager wants to be able to say, I want a division championship. Every owner wants to be able to say we want a division championship. So the more accolades that you can add in, the better off it is for everyone, or at least the better they're going to believe it is that the question is about talent dilution. Of course, You're adding 52 roster spots. I mean, that's a significant number of players. What does this mean for minor league baseball? And the players there, Jeff, we've been talking more about their pay, the equitable stake they're trying to get, where does this leave them? You know, I think there are two separate issues, frankly, Kristin and minor league pay. It's inevitable that it's going to go up that it's going to change just today, advocates for minor leaguers, an organization that's been pushing for better treatment of minor league baseball players said that Dick Durbin believes that there's going to be a hearing on capitol hill in either september or october with rob Manfred there to talk about the treatment of minor league players to pay, uh, and and everything else that's involved with that. And look, major League Baseball just paid 100 and 80 plus million dollars to settle a wage and overtime lawsuit, uh, in which players alleged they weren't paid properly. So there are all kinds of things going on in the minor leagues these days. But I think it's going to end up with my league players hopefully getting paid a living wage. Let's hope, ESPN Senior MLB Insider Jeff. Passan Jeff, thanks so much for taking the time.