September 23 – European leagues are battling authorities to get regular season games played in the USA, but Major League Baseball, having made incursions into the UK in 2019, 2023 and 2024, has scrapped two regular season games planned for London in 2026.
The New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays were aiming to play between June 13-14 at London Stadium, home to Premier League West Ham.
However, West Ham’s final home game of the 2025/26 season is May 20, leaving 20 days to convert the stadium for baseball use, which is not enough time, according to MLB.
While the stadium conversion process took 21 days in 2019 and 18 days in 2023 and 2024, the MLB says the timescales is too tight considering the improvements planned for 2026.
MLB field consultant Murray Cook said: “There’s 345 tons of infield clay. Then you have to sort out the turf, the netting, padding, dugouts.”
The MLB still has ambition for playing in London though.
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.”
In contrast, the NFL has now played 42 regular-season games in London every year since 2007, the only time a break occurred was in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While MLB will not be in London next year, the Big 12 US college sports conference is reportedly negotiating to play a college football game at Wembley Stadium with Kansas and Arizona State in line to play next September.
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