{"id":241018,"date":"2025-10-26T01:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T01:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/241018\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T01:29:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T01:29:07","slug":"rob-manfred-optimistic-mlb-stars-will-play-at-2028-los-angeles-olympics-la-olympic-games-2028","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/241018\/","title":{"rendered":"Rob Manfred optimistic MLB stars will play at 2028 Los Angeles Olympics | LA Olympic Games 2028"},"content":{"rendered":"

Major League Baseball<\/a> commissioner Rob Manfred is increasingly confident big league players will participate in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.<\/p>\n

MLB did not allow players on 40-man rosters at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, when Nippon Professional Baseball interrupted its season and Japan beat the US 2-0<\/a> in the gold medal game.<\/p>\n

MLB has discussed creating an extended All-Star break to allow participation in the 2028 Games, to be held from 14-30 July. An agreement with the players\u2019 association is necessary and sponsor deals could be impacted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am positive about it. I think that the owners have kind of crossed the line in terms of, we\u2019d like to do it if we can possibly make it work,\u201d Manfred said Saturday before Game 2 of the World Series. \u201cThere are logistical issues that still need to be worked on.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the baseball tournament took place over 11 days, including a four-day group stage followed by knockout rounds and culminating in gold and bronze medal games.<\/p>\n

Baseball at the LA Games is likely to have a more compressed format.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have made a lot of progress with LA 2028 in terms of the calendar,\u201d Manfred said. \u201cRight now we\u2019re in discussions with the players\u2019 association about that set of issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Participation in 2028 is likely to be a one-off. The 2032 Olympics are scheduled for Brisbane, Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe logistics of LA as evidenced by how long we\u2019ve been talking about it are difficult,\u201d Manfred said. \u201cThe chances that we\u2019re playing in Brisbane \u2013 difficult, right? Even way more difficult than being in LA.\u201d<\/p>\n

There has been focus on postseason payroll disparity and whether a second straight World Series championship for the Los Angeles Dodgers would increase the likelihood of management proposing a salary cap in talks for a labor contract to succeed the current deal with players, which expires in 2026.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles entered as baseball\u2019s top spender this year, projected at $509m in payroll and luxury tax, more than seven times the $69m of the major league-low Miami Marlins. The Blue Jays are No 5 at $266m.<\/p>\n

No small-market team has won the title since the 2015 Kansas City Royals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think who wins this World Series is any more relevant than who won the last five or six,\u201d Manfred said.<\/p>\n

Manfred said MLB is moving \u201cas fast as we can\u201d in investigations that led to Cleveland pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz being placed on paid leave.<\/p>\n

Ortiz didn\u2019t pitch after 27 June and Clase after 26 July as part of an MLB probe into sports betting.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, our No. 1 priority is to protect the integrity of the game. We think we have great systems in place that allow us to do that,\u201d Manfred said. \u201cWe\u2019ve worked really hard to provide resources to players to make sure that they are comfortable and have an outlet when they have a problem with respect to issues related to sports betting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The head coach of the NBA\u2019s Portland Trail Blazers and a player for the Miami Heat were arrested Thursday along with more than 30 other people in a federal gambling investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important thing that we can do is make sure that we have systems in place that give us access to data which puts you in a position to determine if there\u2019s something aberrational going on,\u201d Manfred said. \u201cWhen you get that, you need to conduct a thorough investigation, make sure that you understand exactly what caused that aberration and then you need to discipline.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manfred sounded content with 12 of 30 teams making the playoffs. The size was expanded from 10 as part of the 2022 labor agreement after the players\u2019 association rejected MLB\u2019s 14-club plan.<\/p>\n

Best-of-three wildcard series started as part of the larger postseason, all played at the ballpark of the higher-seeded team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really like the way 12 has played out,\u201d Manfred said. \u201cI think the wildcard round, playing a series like we\u2019d normally play baseball, was a big improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manfred has said he hopes MLB can select two expansion teams before his term expires in January 2029, but he won\u2019t move forward until the Tampa Bay Rays and the team\u2019s new owners have a deal for a new ballpark.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to be on the field, obviously, but I\u2019d like to have the teams picked,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m pretty comfortable with the idea that something good is going to happen in the Tampa Bay region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montreal has discussed bidding for an expansion team to replace the Expos, who became the Washington Nationals for the 2005 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s certainly other cities in Canada that would be viable expansion candidates,\u201d Manfred said.<\/p>\n

MLB\u2019s contracts remain in the legal drafting phase with Comcast\u2019s NBCUniversal for the wildcard series and Sunday night regular-season games, with Netflix for the All-Star Home Run Derby, and with the Walt Disney Co.\u2019s ESPN for a regular-season package plus in-market rights for Arizona, Cleveland, Colorado, Minnesota and San Diego.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have agreements. We\u2019re just working on long forms and as I have learned over the years, long-form broadcasting agreements take a long time to get done,\u201d Manfred said.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay played home games this year at the New York Yankees\u2019 spring training home, Steinbrenner Field, following damage to Tropicana Field caused by Hurricane Milton. Repairs are ongoing, and the Rays play their home opener on 6 April after starting with a nine-game trip.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hopeful that it will be ready for the opening home set,\u201d Manfred said. \u201cIt\u2019s certainly going to be open very early in the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shohei Ohtani has helped the Dodgers reach the World Series in consecutive years, sparking record viewership in Japan.<\/p>\n

\u201cShohei, it just absolutely has been the greatest benefit to the game that you can imagine throughout the year. In the LCS he had probably the greatest game of all time and we\u2019re fortunate to have him here in the World Series,\u201d Manfred said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred is increasingly confident big league players will participate in the 2028 Los…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-241018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}