Costing Billions, MLB New Or Renovated Ballparks Will Be Most In Over 10 Years

Not since a stretch in the early 2000s will Major League Baseball see efforts to either renovate or build new ballparks, costing the public and clubs billions of dollars. The impacts will shape attendance and set the stage for league expansion that would add two additional facilities.

Former MLB commissioner Bud Selig is remembered for many things: The addition of interleague and the Wild Card. Being in place when the longest strike took out the World Series. Attempts at contracting the league from 30 clubs down to 28. But, maybe the one that gets talked about the least was what I call “Selig’s reclamation project” – a span of over a decade in which an explosion of new ballparks opened reshaping the league and fan experience while causing the highwater mark for attendance in league history. From just 2000 to 2010, 11 new ballparks opened. Billions of public dollars were invested along the way reshaping local, regional, and state policies on how much should be invested.