Vancouver’s push for an MLB team just got a lot more real.
The city has selected The Show Vancouver Bid Corporation as the prospective ownership group to pursue an expansion franchise, putting Vancouver on a path that, at least on paper, could eventually give Major League Baseball a second Canadian home. The group is led by CEO Zack Ross, who laid out the case in a press release.
"Vancouver is my home and it is one of the great cities in the world, and we deserve a Major League Baseball team.
Our vision is a world-class MLB franchise anchored by a landmark ballpark and mixed-use real estate development at an iconic site, creating a destination that generates economic activity, civic pride, and community benefit for generations."
There’s a long road ahead before a pitch is ever thrown there. The biggest obstacle is the ballpark question.
Vancouver’s current High-A club, the Vancouver Canadians, play at Nat Bailey Stadium, which seats 6,500. That’s a far cry from what a major league team would need.
BC Place is the obvious larger venue, with a capacity of 54,500, and it already hosts the CFL’s BC Lions and MLS’ Vancouver Whitecaps. But turning a football and soccer stadium into a baseball park brings a pile of logistical headaches, the same kind the Blue Jays and Toronto Argonauts once dealt with for years. It can be done, but it’s far from ideal.
If Vancouver eventually lands a big-league team, the ripple effects could reach the Blue Jays too. One obvious question is what happens to the Vancouver Canadians, who are currently Toronto’s High-A affiliate.
Could the city support two professional baseball teams? Maybe.
But the Blue Jays might prefer an affiliate city without another MLB club already in the market.
Then there’s the business side, and that’s where Rogers Communications enters the picture. Blue Jays games are carried across the country on Rogers’ radio and television networks, even as the company has closed a number of outlets in recent years, including Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver. If Vancouver gets a team, it would be interesting to see whether Rogers would try to secure the rights to broadcast those games as well.
That possibility cuts both ways. On one hand, a Vancouver club would put Rogers in direct competition with the Blue Jays for viewers.
On the other, there would be nights when the Blue Jays wrap up around 10 p.m. EST and Vancouver’s game would be just getting underway at 7 p.m. local time, giving the network a natural late-night West Coast follow-up.
Even then, Rogers would not own the team, so full coverage would not be guaranteed. And there’s another wrinkle: fan allegiance.
The Blue Jays have long sold themselves as "Canada's team," largely because there hasn’t been another Canadian MLB club to share the stage. A Vancouver franchise would change that.
At the same time, Vancouver already has a strong baseball audience that leans toward the Seattle Mariners. With T-Mobile Park only a two and a half hour drive from downtown Vancouver, plenty of B.C. fans have built their baseball habits around the easier trip south rather than the trek to Rogers Centre.
Bigger picture, the whole idea of MLB expansion should have baseball fans paying attention. The league hasn’t added a team since 1998, when the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Rays brought the total to 30. That stall could finally loosen up once the current CBA expires in December of 2026, with the next one potentially opening the door to real movement on expansion.
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