MLB Agrees Return To London

Major League Baseball (MLB) is set to return to London with regular season games taking place in 2023, 2024 and 2026.

MLB Commissioner, Rob Manfred, and London mayor, Sadiq Khan, have announced a long-term partnership between the league and the city which will see several other major events over the next five years, along with the regular season games. The move is part of the plan to grow the game in the UK, similar to how the NFL has done so through the NFL London Games.

MLB’s first venture into the United Kingdom came in 2019, when the Red Sox and the Yankees took part in the MLB London Series, two games at London Stadium that each drew nearly 60,000 fans. They were the first MLB games staged in Europe.

The St Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs had been scheduled to play each other in London in June 2020 but their series was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Rob Mandred said, “All aspects of the inaugural MLB games in London were an overwhelming success. It was clear that sports fans in London had a great appetite for baseball and that passion was shared by Mayor Khan as well as the business and media community. We are confident in making a long-term commitment to London and are looking forward to returning to the city with more MLB games, special fan events, and other opportunities to play and watch the game.”

Sadiq Khan added, “Today is an historic day for London and baseball. This long-term partnership with Major League Baseball is ambitious and includes regular-season games as well as a legacy program designed to grow the number of Londoners watching and playing baseball at a grassroots level in London.”

To complement these events, MLB Europe will continue to conduct new London-based fan engagement events, expanded UK-focused content, baseball participation programs and other city-specific media arrangements to help continue the growth of baseball’s popularity across London.

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