Major League Baseball has called off its plans to hold two games in London next year after scheduling issues with the stadium arose, along with a lack of available broadcast slots with a TV partner because of another global sporting event.
Commissioner Rob Manfred confirmed that the games were not going to happen during Tuesday’s Front Office Sports’ “Tuned In” event in New York City.
MLB had been looking to have the Yankees and Blue Jays play a pair of games at London Stadium, home of West Ham United of the Premier League, on June 13 and June 14, 2026, but with the soccer team’s season finale against Leeds on May 24, there wouldn’t be enough time to convert the field to use for baseball.
Because of the World Cup taking place in June, Fox did not have available broadcast slots to push the game to later in the month.
It was the second European venture that had to be put aside by MLB after plans to hold games in Paris were called off after MLB and MLBPA couldn’t find a promoter.
The league first took baseball to London in 2019, when the Yankees played the Red Sox for two games there.
Most recently in 2024, the Mets and Phillies played a pair of games in West Ham’s stadium.
During the event, Manfred reaffirmed MLB’s commitment to breaking into the European market.
“We remain interested in Europe. We think London is an important jumping off point for us,” Manfred said, according to the Associated Press. “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.”
Tuesday’s Front Office Sports event also saw Manfred confirm that the league was nearing deals for its media rights. NBCUniversal is in line to get the wild-card playoff round and Sunday night games during the regular season, while Netflix would get the Home Run Derby.
ESPN, which will not retain Sunday night games, would get weekday regular-season games.
“They are the agreements that have been reported publicly and we hope to push them across the finish line,” Manfred said.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
