Major League Baseball has scrapped two regular season games in London in 2026, the league has confirmed.
The Athletic said The New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays were aiming to play between June 13-14 at London Stadium, home to the Premier League soccer team West Ham United.
But MLB has now deemed it impractical to convert the field to baseball — an expensive and labor-intensive process — in the timeframe that would have been available.
West Ham’s final Premier League match of the season is scheduled for May 24, 20 days before the first planned baseball game.
The Athletic further stated that a person briefed on the league’s international plans said that by the time MLB ultimately could gain access to the field, the logistics made playing infeasible.
The conversion process took 18 days for MLB games in London in 2024, MLB field consultant Murray Cook said last year. Conversion also required 18 days in 2023, he said, while in 2019, the process took 21 days.
Cook said, “There’s 345 tons of infield clay. Then you have to sort out the turf, the netting, padding, dugouts.”
MLB played in London for the first time in 2019, when the Yankees took two games from the Boston Red Sox.
A planned two-game series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs in 2020 was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic, and series were split there by the Cardinals and Cubs in 2023 and the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies in 2024.
MLB will still have a large international presence in 2026 with the next installment of the World Baseball Classic tournament.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said, “We remain interested in Europe. We think London is an important jumping-off point for us.
“We have a facility that has come a long way since the first Yankee-Red Sox game, a much better ballpark now than it was due to their willingness to make investments in that. We continue to believe that there’s an opportunity there.”
MLB’s labor contract included games in Paris for 2025, but they were called off because MLB and the players’ association couldn’t find a promoter.
Manfred said MLB is working on grassroots initiatives in India because of that nation’s affinity for cricket.
Manfred said Mexico is also a priority. MLB played regular-season games in Monterrey in 1996, 1999, 2018 and 2019, and in Mexico City in 2023 and 2024. Arizona and San Diego are likely to play at Mexico City next April 25 and 26.
Manfred added, “We have worked very hard to develop better relationships with the Mexican professional leagues.
“We think we can ultimately build those relationships in a way that they look like Japan and Korea: The domestic professional league thrives, but we have enough players coming to the U.S. to play that it drives our business here in the U.S.”
Continue to follow Coliseum for latest updates on venues business news. Coliseum is dedicated towards building the best global community of sports and entertainment venue executives and professionals creating better and more profitable venues.
Become a member of the only Global Sports Venue Alliance and connect with stadiums, arenas and experts from around the world. Apply for membership at coliseum-online.com/alliance and make use of the 365Coliseum Business.