Nashville Group Gearing Up for Major League Baseball Stadium

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Music City Baseball is teaming with a property company in hopes of buying land that could one day serve as the home of a Major League Baseball team.

The deal between Music City Baseball and Lincoln Property Company announced Tuesday is designed to secure land for a mixed-use development that could include an MLB-ready stadium.

Music City Baseball is an organization of business and community leaders in Nashville that is seeking to bring the majors to Tennessee. The group has already picked a nickname “Stars,” a nod to a Negro League Team that played in Nashville in the 1940s and 50s.

The group could have some time to find a location.

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred has said MLB won’t explore expansion until securing new ballparks for the Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays.

The A’s plan to move to a new park in Las Vegas in 2028, but construction has not started, and they will spend at least three seasons playing home games at a minor league stadium in Sacremento. Tampa Bay withdrew this month from a planned $1.3 billion stadium plan in St. Petersburg, citing a hurricane and delays that likely drove up the proposal’s cost, and will play home games this season at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, the New York Yankees’ spring training home.

Photo: The Hurricane Milton-damaged roof at St. Pete’s Tropicana Field, the longtime home of the Rays. (Max Chesnes/Tampa Bay Times via AP)