Group Led By Dave Stewart Preparing Bid For Potential MLB Expansion Team In Nashville

Baseball is preparing for expansion as the MLB team known as The Tennessee Smokies announced that it would be sold to a group led by Dave Stewart, founder of rock band Aerosmith. Nashville’s potential new baseball club will have an exclusive partnership with the Cincinnati Reds and could start playing games in 2020.

The “nashville stars ” is a group led by Dave Stewart preparing bid for potential MLB expansion team in Nashville. The group will be submitting their bid to the league for review, and if approved, they would become the thirteenth MLB franchise.

Former All-Star pitcher and three-time World Series winner Dave Stewart is heading a group attempting to acquire an MLB club in Nashville, Tennessee, which would be the league’s first wholly minority-owned team.

According to both Stewart and MLB sources, Music City Baseball named Stewart to manage its diversified equity ownership strategy aimed at landing a Major League franchise for baseball’s next round of expansion, which is expected to happen in the next three to five years.

Baseball hasn’t gained clubs in over a quarter-century, when Arizona and Tampa Bay joined in 1998. Expansion is a top objective for the league. Commissioner Rob Manfred has emphasized that MLB must first fix stadium difficulties in Oakland and Tampa Bay before expanding. In their respective cities, neither city has made any long-term stadium obligations. A’s owner John Fisher has made a public pitch to move to Las Vegas while seeking a new stadium in Oakland, while Tampa Bay previously proposed a combined Montreal-Tampa Bay solution that was rejected by Manfred.

Stewart, who spent parts of eight seasons in Oakland and helped the club win a World Series in 1989, told ESPN on Tuesday, “I met with the commissioner a couple of weeks ago and the same situation still stands.” “The Oakland Athletics and the Tampa Bay Rays are two teams without a home, therefore it is one of his top objectives to ensure that they have a place to play. However, once they do, growth becomes the next priority.”

Former pitcher Dave Stewart is leading a group that wants to become baseball’s first minority ownership group with a majority stake in a franchise. They’re considering a franchise expansion in Nashville, with the suggested moniker “Nashville Stars.” Dave Stewart provided this image.

A majority minority-owned baseball club would be a historic first, as well as the conclusion of Stewart’s ownership quests with the miami marlins and the Oakland Athletics. In recent decades, some high-profile Black former players, including Hall of Famers Henry Aaron and Joe Morgan, as well as Reggie Jackson, have explored ownership in the sport. Magic Johnson the NBA Hall of Famer, holds a 2% investment in the Los Angeles Dodgers, while Derek Jeter allegedly had a 4% share in the Miami Marlins before abandoning his ownership.

Stewart said he expected his group, which includes former US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, to raise $2 billion to buy an expansion franchise.

The Nashville Stars are the proposed name for the club, which is a nod to the Negro Leagues team that called Nashville home in the 1940s and 1950s. Because of the success of the NFL’s Tennessee Titans and the NHL’s Nashville Predators, Nashville has become more appealing for baseball.

Mixed-use development, market-rate housing, and a partnership with Tennessee State University, a storied historically Black institution, are all part of the concept. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City is also a collaborator on the project with Stewart’s organization.

“This procedure began four years ago Nashville is a rapidly expanding metropolis. It is home to a lovely community of individuals “Stewart said. “There’s a lot going on in this room. So, when MLB named Nashville as one of its top expansion destinations, I believe it sparked the notion to pursue this road.”

The “mlb team map ” is a map that shows the locations of all 30 MLB teams. The Group led by Dave Stewart preparing bid for potential MLB expansion team in Nashville.