This seems to be a really bad idea: Major League Baseball is talking with the Trump Administration about holding a 2028 regular-season game in a national park, with a Grand Teton National Park ballpark a leading contender.
According to the Washington Post, Major League Baseball has approached the Trump Administration about possibly hosting a regular-season game — likely in 2028 — in a U.S. national park. In response, National Park Service deputy director Frank Lands visited Grand Teton National Park to scout out three potential locations for a 20,000-capacity ballpark and accompanying facilities (clubhouses, production spaces, concession spaces, offices). The Post stressed no final decision has been made on whether a ballgame would be held at all, much less any necessary permits, and revealed a curiously hands-off reaction from an administration that usually jumps at the chance to participate in a high-profile sporting event: “This is not a Presidential directive, nor is it being directed by the White House,” the White House said in a statement confirming the interest. “It’s also not being driven by the Department of Interior. Therefore, this is not a White House or Administration priority.”
“If the MLB wants to go on site visits of national parks, that is their prerogative,”
Given how protective people across the country are of their national parks generally and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem specifically, such a game would certainly generate a lot of pushback in people’s opinions of Major League Baseball. It would certainly be exploitive of commandeering resources in a place purposely set aside for the enjoyment of all — and if you think Jackson or Grand Teton hotel rates are expensive now, just wait and price them for an MLB game — and given there’s literally no historical reason to hold a game in Grand Teton, it will rightly be decried as a made-for-TV gimmick.
MLB has used neutral-site games as a way to broaden the sport’s popularity in recent years, both internationally and within the United States, but there have been clear ties to baseball history and traditional for most of them. The Little League Classic and Field of Dreams games are now annual contests at the Little League World Series and Dyersville, Iowa Field of Dreams site, while other one-offs have included a Fort Bragg game in 2016, a Rickwood Field (Birmingham) game in 2024 and Bristol Motor Speedway extravaganza in 2025. The Bristol event was not universally regarded as a big success in the industry — ratings were meh, and the fan experience was pretty lousy, with concessions running out of food and seating sightlines pretty terrible — and in the end the event didn’t lead to facility upgrades or new facilities as they did in Iowa, Fort Bragg or Williamsport.
Still, it’s not hard to see exactly why both MLB and the Trump Administration would be initially attracted to Grand Teton National Park as the place to build a 20,000-capacity temporary ballpark while addressing the logistics needed to construct a facility, given our experience publishing Yellowstone Insider for a decade. First: Grand Teton is the only national park with a commercial airport within the park itself. Located in the southern part of the park, Jackson Hole Airport is 20 minutes from downtown Jackson and 35 miles south of Teton Village. That means easy access for teams, dignitaries and — perhaps most important for the Trump Administration — an easy access point and photo op for Donald Trump landing on Air Force One. Second: The southern portion of Grand Teton near the airport is relatively flat, well-served with utilities, very accessible via Hwy. 191 and incredibly scenic, with South Teton — the southernmost of the three largest mountains in the Teton Range — framing the horizon to the west. (Given how an MLB ballpark is configured these days, the mountains would frame the view along the left-field line.) Most national parks are relatively remote, but the southern portion of Grand Teton National Park is not. Third: the aforementioned Teton Village features plenty of open accommodations in the summer offseason, while we’re guessing a lot of MLB types will be attracted to the high-end hotels, restaurants, and shopping in Jackson. Fourth: MLB has never held a regular-season game in Wyoming.
Those are the pluses. The minuses are numerous, as there are some significant restrictions on events and temporary facilities within national park boundaries — though it sounds like the restrictions are less severe in already-developed parts of a National Park, and the southern portion of Grand Teton National Park was developed long before it became a park in 1929.
So it will be interesting to see how MLB and the Trump Administration proceed on a potential Grand Teton National Park ballpark. As noted, we don’t think it’s a particularly good idea for MLB or the sport–and there are a lot better sites for an event more closely tied to baseball history that could benefit from the spending an MLB special event brings.