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MLB drops plan for London games in 2026, says nearing deals TV with NBC, ESPN, Netflix, Apple

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball has abandoned plans to play two games in London next season because of scheduling issues with West Ham's Olympic Stadium and the sport's television partner.

MLB had hoped to have the New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays meet in London on June 13 and 14, but West Ham is home for its Premier League finale against Leeds on May 24. That left too little time to convert the field to baseball, and MLB was unable to schedule games there for later in June because Fox lacked available broadcast slots due to World Cup commitments.

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said Tuesday after his question-and-answer session at Front Office Sports" “Tuned In” event that the London games were definitely off.

MLB played in London for the first time in 2019 when the New York Yankees swept 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'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.

“We remain interested in Europe. We think London is an important jumping off point for us,” Manfred said during his Q&A session. “We have a facility that has come a long way since the first Yankee-Red Sox game. It’s 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 and that we can get at the developed economies in Europe through that London entree.”

Manfred said MLB is working on grassroots initiatives in India because of that nation's affinity for cricket.

“We're really starting from the bottom up,” he said.

Mexico also is a priority. MLB played regular-season games at Monterrey in 1996, 1999, 2018 and 2019, and at Mexico City in 2023 and 2024. Arizona and San Diego are likely to play at Mexico City next April 25 and 26.

“We have worked very hard to develop better relationships with the Mexican professional leagues," Manfred said. "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.”

MLB has gained in the Asian market, especially in recent years because of Shohei Otahni's following. MLB opened the season at Tokyo in 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2019 and this year, and at Seoul, South Korea, in 2024.

“Our approach to international has always been country by country, largely because we find the places we’re interested in to be in different stages of development,” Manfred said. "With respect to Japan and Korea, we made investments there. We monetarily, and players, in terms of the sweat equity involved, of making the trip to Tokyo to open the season, making the trip to Seoul to open the season, that we have started to see return on those investments.

“I think that the opportunity to monetize the great fan base that we have in Japan and Korea will show up in terms of purely international revenue, but it will also show up in our national media. My prediction is there will be some of the more media companies — the streamers will be really interested in the ability to get access to well-developed economies where they don’t have as much penetration as they do in countries like the United States and Canada. So it’s going to show up in different places out of those developed economies.”

U.S. national broadcast agreements

Manfred confirmed media reports that MLB is nearing agreements for 2026-28 with Comcast's NBCUniversal for the Wild Card Series and Sunday night regular-season games, with Netflix for the All-Star Home Run Derby, with Apple TV for regular-season games and with The Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN for a regular-season package plus in-market rights for Arizona, Cleveland, Colorado, Minnesota and San Diego.

“We have, kind of have agreements in principle. We still have issues that need to be resolved. They are the agreements that have been reported publicly and we hope to push them across the finish line,” Manfred said.

ESPN had opted out of its deal for the Sunday night and Home Run Derby rights for 2026-28.

“If those are the agreements that get all the way through and finish," Manfred said, "we feel like we made real progress. We feel like Sunday night baseball on broadcast television is important. We worked really hard to keep ESPN in as a partner, and we think starting with Netflix is a really exciting opportunity.”

Manfred said talks with ESPN president James Pitaro resumed in July at the Allen & Co. Sun Valley Conference.

“There was a mutuality of interest in terms of staying partners and it took the parties a little while to think creatively about how we could do that and meet goals that were not exactly aligned,” Manfred said.

Manfred anticipates a different model when baseball negotiates rights packages that will start in 2029.

“There will be more games available in national packages is my bet, but I could be wrong about that. We have three years to go,” He said. “Local is not going away when you have 2,430 games. We’re going to need a local solution for those games that are not available in national packages.”

He said MLB wants each team's games on fewer channels and added clubs “understand that in order to maximize your revenue in today’s media environment, you have to be more national."

“Getting more national and getting more games out there on a national basis has to be your number one priority,” Manfred said. "Everybody seems to buy into that. I think there’s a little more trepidation on what’s going to happen with games that are not included in those national packages.”

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

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