North America’s elite Major League Baseball (MLB) has scrapped its 2026 London series due to issues regarding the staging and broadcast of the prospective international games.
The two-match series between the iconic New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays franchises was scheduled to take place on June 13 and 14, 2026, at the 68,013-capacity London Stadium in the UK’s capital.
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MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, however, confirmed earlier this week that the game would not be taking place.
One element that contributed to the cancellation was the schedule of English soccer’s elite Premier League, as the London Stadium is also the home of Premier League side West Ham United.
It was deemed that there would not be enough time between West Ham’s final home fixture of the season on May 24 and the first MLB game on June 13 to properly convert the field into a baseball-ready surface.
Furthermore, the inflexibility of US domestic broadcaster Fox, which would be carrying the pair of games, meant that it was unfeasible to reschedule the international fixtures to a later date.
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By GlobalDataAs Fox is set to cover the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2026, soccer’s biggest quadrennial global showcase, the broadcaster did not have any available TV slots left to accommodate the baseball games at a different time.
The first MLB London series took place in 2019, and also featured the Yankees, with the league also hosting international games in Japan, South Korea, and Mexico since.
The league had intended to stage an international fixture in Paris, France, during the current 2025 campaign, but that was curtailed after struggles in finding a promoter for the event.
With European international fixtures now cancelled in back-to-back seasons, the MLB will need to work to ensure its push on the continent does not stall.
Post 2026, the league will enter into a new, updated collective bargaining agreement with the MLB Player Association labor union, the terms of which will define when and where the league next sends teams across the Atlantic.
MLB last visited the city in 2024, when the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies played out a pair of games.
In the aftermath of those games, MLB Europe managing director Ben Ladkin spoke to Sportcal, commenting: “What we want to do is think of ways in which we can grow the sport that aren't always just around bringing two teams across, but actually are organically building up the fans and the participants in baseball across Europe.”
