Mayor says there's 'credible interest' from groups wanting to bring MLB team to Vancouver
A surprise announcement on Tuesday has people wondering if Vancouver could actually land a Major League Baseball expansion team.
The press release sent out by the City of Vancouver revealed that Mayor Ken Sim is bringing forward a motion to “initiate an open and competitive process” to bring an MLB franchise to Vancouver.
The announcement was met with a ton of skepticism from local sports fans.
But in a Wednesday morning interview on Sportsnet 650, Sim provided further details. Notably, the mayor said there’s “credible interest” from groups wanting to bring an MLB team to Vancouver.
“We’re seeing interest in bringing a team here, and it’s credible interest,” Sim told hosts Mike Halford and Jason Brough. “We also know the commissioner of Major League Baseball has said that they want to expand to two additional teams before his term ends in January of 2029. So we want to make sure that Vancouver has an opportunity to present a very credible bid.”
This is a topic Daily Hive tackled back in September. Nashville and Salt Lake City have widely been seen as frontrunners for the next expansion teams. Portland, San Jose, Austin, Orlando, Raleigh, Charlotte, and Montreal have all been mentioned as potential landing spots as well.
“The cities that are out there, almost exclusively, have been cities that have self-reported,” commissioner Rob Manfred said in an interview with CNBC in July 2025. “In other words, they’re coming to us saying we’d like to have a team.”
Vancouver was mentioned as a potential expansion city by Manfred as recently as 2018.
“In my background in entrepreneurship, when you see an opportunity, you be proactive,” Sim said. “You don’t wait for things to come to you. We know cities like Nashville, Portland, they are all over this right now, and we want to make sure we’re in the running… If serious bidders want to be part of this process, we want to identify them.”
“I think the big thing is getting our ducks in a row right now… What we wanted to do is initiate a very competitive and open expression of interest process to identify qualified proponents that are financially sound, that know what they’re doing, that could launch a successful bid.”
Just who is willing to buck up and buy a team remains a mystery, but this isn’t a topic that just popped up overnight.
Sim said he couldn’t discuss “confidential conversations.”
“What I can tell you is we are very excited about the quality of individuals and groups that are expressing an interest… What I think people should realize is the nature of sports ownership, professional sports teams, it’s global now. You can have local interest with partners.”
Sim admitted that BC Place was “not well suited” for baseball, and agreed that a new ballpark would likely need to be built. He was clear that taxpayer money would not be used to fund it.
Where could they build it?
“If I were to speculate where potential [locations] could be, you could look at the PNE, along Burrard Inlet, False Creek,” Sim spitballed, though he noted a stadium location would be left up to the bidders.
We should get more information about just who is interested in bringing MLB to Vancouver in the near future. Sim said the motion will come to council on April 22, adding that it would be approximately a 60-day process.