SALT LAKE CITY — When and if Major League Baseball ever decides to move forward with expansion, Salt Lake City remains an odds-on favorite to land a new team along the Wasatch Front.
The latest updated odds released by bookies.com now give Salt Lake City a 22.2 percent chance of becoming home to the top level of professional baseball, sitting only behind Nashville at 33.3 percent.
In an article Friday focusing on how the MLB schedule would likely shrink following expansion, The Athletic's Jayson Stark wrote, "Probably Nashville and Salt Lake," when posing the question as to where new teams would be located, while adding, "but that's not a lock."
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred has made no secret about his desire to expand to 32 teams from 30, only remaining hesitant until both the Athletics in Las Vegas and the Rays in the Tampa area move into permanent homes.
If MLB expansion places its expansion teams into the eastern and western portions of the U.S., as expected, Salt Lake City's only competition appears to be Portland, whose current odds sit at just 13.3 percent.
Salt Lake City is a popular choice for many in and around baseball, as a group led by the Miller family is in place to run the club, and a site for a new stadium in the proposed Power District site, just east of the Utah State Fairpark, has already been selected.
Odds for cities most likely to get MLB expansion team (bookies.com):
Nashville - 33.3%
SALT LAKE CITY - 22.2%
Raleigh - 18.2%
Portland - 13.3%
Charlotte - 10%
Montreal - 4.8%
Field - 9.1%
