Renowned infrastructure expert Alexey Milovanov sees MLB expansion as an opportunity for the sport (Exclusive)

Rob Manfred has stated on many occasions that he'd like to see MLB expand. He's stated he wants to get the league to 32 teams and to see the game grow globally, which is why he's brought it to Mexico and London just this year.

However, Manfred appears content with just finding baseball stadiums that exist in these areas and retrofitting them to hold major league teams. For example, the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres visited Mexico City and scored a combined 37 runs in two games thanks to a smaller ballpark.

I spoke with Alexey Milovanov, whose contention is that the league needs to build new stadiums if they truly want to grow the game. Not only will it improve the quality of fan experience and the actual MLB gameplay, but it will bring in new fans- which Manfred has purported to be interested in doing.

Milovanov believes baseball has a rich history and can be a wonderful reflection of culture that demands to be experienced globally:

"It's not only about sports, it's also about developing the culture to bring this culture to the to the, to the country, to the people to the new people, because everybody knows, you know, from this part of the world, in America, playing baseball, but nobody really is thinking about the cultural background or about the historical background, and you should make people interested in that."

Baseball has long been considered America's pastime. While American football has possibly become more popular, nothing holds the history and culture of this country like baseball, more specifically the MLB.

After the success of the World Baseball Classic, it's clear that baseball can succeed on the world stage and it is an opportunity for a classic American thing to be accessible and accepted the world over.

---

Alexey Milovanov believes global MLB infrastructure is necessary for expanding baseball's culture

That culture is a big part of why baseball is so popular in America. Through the good times and bad in this country, baseball has been there. That kind of culture deserves to be shared with the world, much like cultural food is shared in America.

MLB London's current stadium

Alexey Milovanov says that the key to doing this, which absolutely needs to be done, is to build infrastructure:

"It's quite interesting, very popular in North America. And like, surely, you could see a lot of fun and actually, which I really, really, like, it's a lot of culture behind that. A lot of history behind that. And to expand it to the rest of the world, you should build infrastructure."

He admits that it would cost some money for the MLB to do this, but that it's necessary and worthwile.