Major League Baseball Aims for Europe With a London Series
The Story
Major League Baseball used a two game series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs in London in June 2023 as the launching point for a broader push into Europe, with Paris then seen as a likely next destination.
Chris Marinak, MLB's chief operations and strategy officer, described the United Kingdom as the jumping off point for reaching the continent, and the league planned London series for 2024 and 2026; the 2024 games went ahead, but the 2026 series was canceled over stadium and broadcast scheduling conflicts.
Interest is rising, as the share of British sports fans following baseball grew from 4 percent in 2019 to 5.9 percent by 2022, and MLB Europe's social media following tripled to 452,000 since the Yankees and Red Sox drew nearly 119,000 fans to London Stadium in 2019.
Britain ranks as MLB's largest European market by broadcast revenue and merchandise sales, though it still trails Mexico, Japan, South Korea, China, and Australia globally.
France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy were potential future markets, but the proposed Paris games in 2025 were called off after MLB and the players association could not find a promoter.
The strategy builds on baseball's first regular season game outside North America, a 1996 Mets and Padres matchup in Mexico, as the league treats international growth as central to its long term commercial future.
Chris Marinak, MLB's chief operations and strategy officer, described the United Kingdom as the jumping off point for reaching the continent, and the league planned London series for 2024 and 2026; the 2024 games went ahead, but the 2026 series was canceled over stadium and broadcast scheduling conflicts.
Interest is rising, as the share of British sports fans following baseball grew from 4 percent in 2019 to 5.9 percent by 2022, and MLB Europe's social media following tripled to 452,000 since the Yankees and Red Sox drew nearly 119,000 fans to London Stadium in 2019.
Britain ranks as MLB's largest European market by broadcast revenue and merchandise sales, though it still trails Mexico, Japan, South Korea, China, and Australia globally.
France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy were potential future markets, but the proposed Paris games in 2025 were called off after MLB and the players association could not find a promoter.
The strategy builds on baseball's first regular season game outside North America, a 1996 Mets and Padres matchup in Mexico, as the league treats international growth as central to its long term commercial future.
Why It Matters
London's missing games show the cost of borrowing another sport's stadium. AP reported in September 2025 that the proposed June 2026 series fell through because stadium conversion time and Fox's World Cup commitments left no workable slot. Paris had already lost its planned 2025 games for lack of a promoter. Fans cannot buy a return date on the strength of expansion talk. The players association lists December 1, 2026 as the major league labor agreement's expiration; that date does not predict when bargaining ends. Watch the next signed agreement and an official London schedule before treating a European return as booked.
Go Deeper
Read the original reporting at ESPN.
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