Infrastructure expert Alexey Milovanov estimates $200,000,000 - $300,000,000 spend to build new MLB stadium outside America (Exclusive)

Rob Manfred has stated time and again that he'd like to expand MLB globally. With the recent trips to Mexico City and London, with the latter coming just a few weekends ago, it's clear that playing on the world stage is important to Manfred and the league.

Infrastructure expert Alexey Milovanov and I sat down to discuss this goal. Presently, MLB is content to visit stadiums that are already built and simply retrofit them to work with the current major league game.

That leads to poor fan experience and a unique and sometimes disappointing style of play in those games. If Manfred is really interested in expanding the game, they need to consider building stadiums to fit the game, not the other way around, as Milovanov says:

"Okay, the average cost of the stadium, it's, it depends on what you really want to have, what you're really what you really want to get from the stadium. But the average costs for, let's say, 40,000 seats. It's something between 200,000 300,000 US dollars, it's an average cost stadium for the modern stadium."

That cost is rather large and it would also require time, upwards of three years if they began construction today. That fact is not lost on Milovanov, who maintains that a global expansion would be good for the game. He also believes that building infrastructure globally is paramount to this goal.

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Alexey Milovanov believes MLB can mirror FIFA

Alexey Milovanov has worked with FIFA on building infrastructure for the World Cup. That tournament happens every four years in a different country, but that hasn't stopped the league from building new and exciting stadiums in those countries.

MLB could build stadiums like FIFA does

Could MLB follow their lead? As Milovanov mentioned, there would certainly be a cost to that. That cost hasn't hurt FIFA and Rob Manfred and company could look to them as an example:

"I believe that one of their main goal is the expansion and development of the game of the sports itself. And part of this development, I'm absolutely sure should be more already. It is the worldwide expansion and how to how to do it... For example, FIFA, you know, working on the football development in the world? How are they acting and how successful there are many revenues they got, you know, from the World Cup."

Whether or not the league will build new stadiums and expand the game globally remains to be seen. What is clear is that doing so would bring the game, its history and its culture to the worldwide stage like nothing before.