AP Photo/Jeff ChiuAccording to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, Dave Stewart, a former MLB pitcher, has been brought on by the Music City Baseball group, which is hoping to field an MLB expansion team, the Nashville Stars, to lead its Diverse Equity Ownership Initiative.
Stewart will focus on landing investors of color. The group is expected to raise $2 billion for the project.
The time has come for Black ownership in Major League Baseball, according to Stewart.
Bryant was told that Nashville is on the league&s short list of potential expansion locations.
Four years ago, we started this process. Nashville is growing fast. He said that it has a beautiful population of people. I think that the idea to go down this path was triggered by MLB putting Nashville as one of its top places for expansion.
Major League Baseball was focused on finding new stadium deals for the Oakland A's and the Tampa Bay Rays, he said. According to Stewart and other MLB sources, expansion could take place within three to five years.
The league added two new teams in 1998.
A majority minority-owned team in baseball would be a historic first, and the culmination of a quest for Stewart, who has pursued ownership in the past with the Miami Marlins and the A's.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have a 2 percent stake in Magic Johnson, while the Miami Marlins have a 4 percent stake in the man.
The Negro League team of the same name played from the 1930s to 1950s, and the name Nashville Stars is an homage to them.
Stewart played 16 years at the MLB level. He was an All-Star, three-time World Series champion, and the 1989 World Series Most Valuable Player.
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