MLB
MLB keen to expand their international series
With the successful MLB Mexico Series in the bag and the London Series around the corner, we look at the plans for taking the MLB regular season global.
The San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers hit paydirt in Mexico, capturing the zeitgeist perfectly as a Mexican public still enthralled by the World Baseball Classic jumped behind these two SoCal juggernauts.
Of course, it was not the first time that MLB had played in Mexico, but somehow things are different now. In the last three decades, there have been over 200 games played internationally. Most have been exhibitions, although regular season games have been a recurring feature.
Mexico, Japan, and London have been the most frequent sites for MLB series, although the Dodgers and Diamondbacks played in Sydney, Australia in 2014.
With the news that next season’s opener will likely be a repeat of the Mexico Series, with the Padres and Dodgers meeting in Seoul, South Korea, it would seem that both the league and individual teams are developing a taste for travel.
MLB is now running headlong into developing a Paris series in 2025 and several teams have expressed strong interest, including the Yankees and Red Sox. This would be the first time MLB was played in the City of Lights.
As part of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement with the league, players have agreed to play regular season games at multiple international sites through 2026, and this is an area that is squarely within the focus of MLB’s plan.
The Paris series would be accompanied by a series in Mexico City, Japan, and Puerto Rico in 2025 as well. MLB’s newfound focus centers on youth, diversity, and competing with the other “big three” sports in the US.
The NFL has made such a success of their London games that they play four regular season games per season in the UK. While direct comparison to the NFL is still a long way off, one of the reasons that MLB believes that they are lagging behind is their international reach.
The true king of global reach, however, is the NBA. Since the 1980s, the game has become so popular outside of our borders that top professional leagues exist in Spain, Greece, Italy, and Russia, among other countries. Some of the league’s biggest stars come out of those leagues.