In an anonymous poll conducted by The Athletic, MLB players overwhelmingly favored the city of Nashville as their preferred expansion site.
“Major League players say Nashville is by far the best city for an expansion team,” The Athletic tweeted. 69 players of the 100 who voted picked the 22nd-most populated city in America as their destination of choice. Other votes went to Montreal, Charlotte, Austin, Vancouver, and Salt Lake City.
Major League players say Nashville is by far the best city for an expansion team.
69% of players polled told The Athletic that the Music City should be next to have a team.
Montreal, Charlotte and Austin followed.https://t.co/AlSz6foSIZ pic.twitter.com/OWChwDvkBV
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) June 20, 2023
The choice of Nashville isn’t a surprise. Nashville has a lot to like: A great party atmosphere, great food, music, nightlife, two professional sports teams already, and much more. Sports fans in Nashville and Tennessee are also very passionate and would probably be abuzz over a new MLB team if one landed there.
Needless to say, though, many MLB fans and several in the MLB world sported an opinion about this survey.
Ken Rosenthal called it a “fascinating” poll.
This entire poll is fascinating… https://t.co/XBrjL3LBOw
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) June 20, 2023
Montreal radio host Jeremy Filosa called it “sad” that Montreal wasn’t even in the discussion despite its huge population.
The fact that Montreal has a population of 4,3M and none of the others even come close, and that Montreal is not a lock in the eyes of the MLB proves how badly we've undervalued our own worth. It shouldn't even be a discussion. It's sad. https://t.co/T98BP43dRf
— Jeremy Filosa
(@JeremyFilosa) June 20, 2023
Vanderbilt’s PA announcer, Kris Freeman, touted Nashville big-time. As one would.
Of course players picked Nashville
everybody picks Nashville. The city has proven time and again to be the fastest growing destination city in the world for tourism and long term residency. MLB to Nashville is a no-brainer @mlb2nashville @MLBNashville @NashvilleStars https://t.co/6TKGeEQhlC — Kris Freeman (@KrisFreemanPA) June 20, 2023
One fan felt they could read through it: “AKA 69% of MLB players want to hit Broadway during their season,” they tweeted. Fair.
AKA 69% of MLB players want to hit Broadway during their season https://t.co/K1bIYddGEQ
— 𝙳𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚟𝚘𝚗 (@KeiserDonavon) June 20, 2023
One fan was weary, though, that other teams in the area would be willing to concede their market share. They also tweeted, “Let’s talk expansion when MLB can’t even get its current owners to be serious about the sport.”
I doubt Atlanta, ST Louis and Cincinnati want to give up that market share. But sure, let's talk expansion when MLB can't even gets its current owners to be serious about the sport. https://t.co/mVPZHUBQ0S
— Corey Reese (@Warrax_Wow) June 20, 2023