What's Left?

When Major League Baseball reorganized the minor leagues in 2020, one change was minimum facility standards, with a 2025 deadline for compliance. Most teams were able to upgrade their existing stadiums but the new requirements contributed to a flurry of new ballparks starting in 2025. "Starting" because the compliance deadline has proven to be flexible.

Four new stadiums opened in 2025 but we elected to visit just one; The Ballpark at America First Square, the new home of the Pacific Coast League Salt Lake Bees. Our logic was, SLC (actually, South Jordan, Utah) is geographically distant from any other teams in affiliated baseball and the other three teams that relocated last year are in the Southeast, as are three of the stadiums opening in 2026.

New last year were the KNOXVILLE SMOKIES, the Cubs' Southern League affiliate, who returned to the city after a quarter-century in the suburbs; the HUB CITY SPARTANBURGERS, formerly the Down East Wood Ducks (Texas Rangers, Carolina League) who moved from charming but antiquated Grainger Stadium; and the COLUMBUS CLINGSTONES, the Braves' Southern League affiliate who previously played in Jackson, Mississippi.

The black pin is the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers.
The red pins are Knoxville, Spartanburg, and Columbus.
The orange pins are Chattanooga, Wilson, and Richmond.

This year, the CHATTANOOGA LOOKOUTS (Cincinnati Reds, Southern League) are moving a mere three miles as part of the South Broad Chattanooga mixed-use development. The Carolina Mudcats will travel a bit further, 25 miles from Zebulon, North Carolina, to rebrand as the WILSON WARBIRDS. The Brewers' Carolina League affiliate has set up shop next to Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park. Finally, and that is a double entendre, the RICHMOND FLYING SQUIRRELS will have a new home field after waiting 16 years. In addition to he Giants' Eastern League affiliate, the stadium will host Virginia Commonwealth University and is part of (you guessed it) a mixed-use development.

Elsewhere and Further Ahead

Imperial War Museum image used through IWM Non-Commercial License.

2026

Two more new stadiums will open this year but we will probably not visit them until some geographic adjacencies emerge. The HILLSBORO HOPS (Arizona Diamondbacks, Northwest League), who have played at the Gordon Faber Recreation Complex since relocating from Yakima in 2013, are moving to another site within the public park.

It's not a game of musical chairs if you don't remove a chair, which is what will occurr in the California League. The Rancho Cucamonga Quakes extended the lease of their current stadium and negotiated fulfillment of the MLB facility requirements there, while at the same time agreeing to move to a ballpark being built as part of the 200-acre Ontario Regional Recreation Complex.

The Inland Empire 66ers (Los Angeles Angels) will move to The Epicenter — one of the best stadium names in baseball — and assume the Quakes moniker, and the Modesto Nuts will move to San Bernardino and become the 66ers (Seattle Mariners). For all that, we gain only one new stadium/team, the ONTARIO TORRID BUZZARDS (Los Angeles Dodgers).

at dusk (or with a wildfire nearby) in Ontario, California

2027

Everett, Washington, continues to move forward with plans for an "outdoor event center" that will serve as the new home field for the EVERETT AQUASOX (Seattle Mariners, Northwest League), minor league soccer, and other events. The city has selected a site, begun site prep', and designated a design-build firm for construction.

However, the project isn't fully funded, the cost estimate is probably optimistic, and there are other  unanswered questions, The official timeline calls for construction to begin this year and be completed in 2027, which seems unrealistic for a project that requires eminent domain and a lot more money.

2028

The EUGENE EMERALDS went with hat in hand to the University of Oregon, Lane County, and voters in Eugene, with the last rejecting a $15M bond measure by a two-to-one margin. At the end of the 2024 season, the Ems' general manager said he was speaking with municipalities in Idaho and southern and central Oregon.

On November 2, 2025 in southwest Oregon, Medford voters narrowly (52 percent in favor) approved a two-percent increase in the hotel tax to partially fund a conference center and other development, potentially including a baseball stadium. Most of the project costs will be assumed by a private developer whom the city has selected but not yet named.

The stadium is planned for a portion of Hawthorne Park. Interstate 5 runs through the center of the development site.

The history of the A’s plans to build a new stadium and associated development on the Oakland waterfront, then alternatively to move to Las Vegas, is so sordid that the less said, the better. On June 23, 2025, the LAS VEGAS ATHLETICS held a ceremonial ground breaking so for now, the team anticipates playing its 2028 season in Nevada.

When the SAN ANTONIO MISSIONS were sold in fall 2022 to a consortium that included seasoned baseball executives and a local real estate developer, it seemed like a breakthrough (Ballpark Digest) in the years-long hand-wringing over a new stadium. Two more years would pass before MLB threatened to relocate the Texas League team, which resulted in the City approving broad financing terms in September 2024 and one month later, inking with Bexar County a Memorandum of Understanding (San Antonio Report) that calls for a new ballpark by 2028.

UNDETERMINED

The Devil Rays, as they were called then, had played just 10 seasons at Tropicana Field when in 2007 they started to talk about moving. Long, very long story short, 0n March 13, 2025, the Rays announced that they were walking away from an agreement with the City of St. Petersburg that had taken years to negotiate.

snatching defeat from the jaws of victory

Principle owner Stu Sternberg has agreed under pressure to sell the team but a sale has yet to take place, after which the search for a stadium site would need to resume, followed by negotiations with lenders, environmental review, design, and construction. The team's lease at The Trop expires in 2028.

BEYOND THE HORIZON

The owner of the KANSAS CITY ROYALS  has been stating since 2021 that a new ballpark can be built for the same cost as renovating Kauffman Stadium, the fifth-oldest major league facility. The CHICAGO WHITE SOX have also expressed a desire for a new ballpark. The Royals have made more progress than the ChiSox but both schemes remain proposals.

Finally, the commissioner of baseball, Fred-somebody, supports expanding the MLB to 32 teams. He has stated repeatedly that expansion will not occur until plans for the Rays and the A's are "settled," a term of art. Nevertheless, there are potentially two more major league stadiums coming sometime in the 2030s.