MLB expansion: Potential cities, top locations to land teams - ESPN

Major League Baseball expansion is coming — it's just a matter of when… and where.

While the timeline for MLB to go to 32 teams remains a bit murky, commissioner Rob Manfred recently said he hopes to have a process «in place» for the league to expand to 32 teams before he retires in 2029.

There are plenty of candidates to land one of the franchises when the sport does expand, headlined by a pair of cities that have moved to the front of the line. Is your city one of the places that baseball could be eyeing? We asked our MLB reporters to break down the cases for and against the leading options.

City population: 961,855 (Austin); 1,434,625 (San Antonio)
Metro area population: 2,421,115 (Austin); 2,655,342 (San Antonio)
TV market rank: 35 (Austin); 31 (San Antonio)

Most likely nickname: Austin has the largest urban bat population, so The Austin Bats is a strong option, but they would have to share it with the minor league team in Louisville.

Most likely stadium location: According to Austin journalist Bryan Parker, the area east of the city could work. It includes a newer toll road, and it's where Tesla has headquarters as well as where the airport is located.

The case for Austin/San Antonio: Because these two cities are so close in proximity, we'll focus on Austin and San Antonio together for a potential expansion team. With that in mind, the case for Austin isn't a hard one to make. It's one of the largest U.S. markets without an existing NFL, NBA or MLB team — and it's still growing, recently moving into the top 10 in population. It also has an expanding tech and big company community which includes Apple and Amazon, among many others. Austin FC, a Major League Soccer team that began play in 2021, sold out all 17 of its