Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred has made it clear that they're looking to add more teams in the near future, and he mentioned Vancouver, B.C., as a possible city for expansion.
During an interview at Tuesday's All-Star Game in Washington, D.C., Manfred dove into a list of cities that MLB would consider with expansion, and he hinted at the possibility of Canada getting a second baseball team.
"We have a real list of cities that I think are not only interested in having baseball, but viable in terms of baseball," Manfred said. "Places like Portland, Las Vegas, Charlotte, Nashville in the United States. Certainly Montreal, maybe Vancouver in Canada."
Vancouver is home to the Canadians of the Northwest League, serving as affiliate for the Toronto Blue Jays since 2011, and previously for the Oakland Athletics from 2000-2010. They play at Scotiabank Field at Nat Bailey Stadium, which sits just over 6,400 fans. Obviously, they'd need a much bigger venue to hold a team.
BC Place - home to the CFL's Lions and Vancouver Whitecaps of the MLS - would be also be an option. For the football games, the stadium sits approx. 54,000 fans, though its design wouldn't make BC Place the ideal long-term ballpark.
The Blue Jays would play a series of exhibition games at BC Place during the '80s, but one must watch their road games against the Seattle Mariners to see how just passionate Vancouver is about baseball. Mariners home games against the Blue Jays always bring down thousands of fans from B.C. to cheer for Canada's only baseball team. Surely, Vancouver would have enough of a following to support an MLB team.
For now, it's only talk from Manfred about which cities could be explored for MLB expansion. As of now, the city of Montreal looks like a safer bet to get a team than Vancouver, given that they have an ownership group in place as well as a suitable venue.
But the good folks of the west coast have shown their love for the game of baseball, so they can't give up on the dream of possibly getting an MLB team in their very homeland.
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