MLB Cancels 2026 London Games Due to Scheduling Issues

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00:00All right, Major League Baseball says they're not going to play a pair of previously scheduled

00:04games in London in 2026. This all due to scheduling conflicts and converting the soccer pitch at

00:09London Stadium into a baseball field. The Athletics says the Yankees and Blue Jays were

00:13scheduled to play June 13th and 14th, just 20 days after West Ham United's final Premier League

00:19match of the season. And Renee, converting that field into such a short time frame to a baseball

00:24field was just way too expensive and labor intensive. And Baker, when we had a chance to

00:28catch up with Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred earlier this week at our tuned-in

00:31event, he spoke so highly in excitement about the opportunities to grow baseball globally,

00:37more marquee events, more of those one-offs, more opportunities to reach a different audience.

00:41But with this London situation, it's not the only situation they've had because they also have had

00:45to cancel plans to play in Paris because they couldn't find a promoter. So Major League Baseball

00:49is kind of in that spot now. We've seen the success of the London series, but we've also seen the

00:53backlash. I know my Phillies and other teams have complained about how difficult it is to travel

00:57across the pond in the middle of a 162 regular season schedule already. So they are figuring

01:03out, much like soccer's actually ironically dealt with, how do you best balance these international

01:07competitions in the midst of such a congested, already established sports schedule?

01:11And by the way, they thought about moving it to a later date, but that would have interfered

01:14with Fox's World Cup coverage. And then you had all these other headaches that would have come

01:18with it as well.