The history of baseball in France is unfortunately filled with missed opportunities. Another one has just emerged: no MLB game in Paris in 2025. Beyond the specific reasons for this latest setback, we must ask why one of the world’s most popular sports can’t establish itself in the land of cultural exception and secularism.
The Stade de France is not equipped to host an event like a two-game MLB show. With a change of ownership, the paperwork is ongoing, with talks involving PSG or the Vinci Group, or even a third party. Either way, the former tenant no longer has plans, and the new one is unknown. It’s understandable that grand projects for 2024 or 2025 struggle to include this beautiful stadium in their plans. The American press claims that the MLB (which has not confirmed) cites issues with the promoter and financial viability—that’s politically correct. So, we’ll have the Mets and Phillies in London in 2024, and the Yankees and Dodgers, who volunteered for Paris, will likely go elsewhere in Europe or to Seoul in 2025.
The Paris Olympics were also a missed opportunity. Between Japan in 2021 and the USA in 2028, France failed to seize the chance to develop this sport, which would have brought invaluable exposure. We’ll also see during the 100th-anniversary celebrations of the French Baseball Federation in 2024 that other events were planned for France but couldn’t be realized. It’s clear that the dominance of certain sports in France (those ball games that go from one side of the field to the other: football, rugby, handball, volleyball…) weighs on the possibility of a different sport developing.
There’s also talk of cultural rejection. While baseball rules are less complex than rugby’s, people still believe they’re incomprehensible to French culture. Listen, for example, to one of our most iconic French directors, Alexandre Astier, talking about the rules of the game ‘Robobrolle’ in his latest film ‘Kaamelott.’ ‘It’s like baseball, the rules are impossible to understand.’ We’re not helped… That’s not entirely false, we might reply, because we’re fed up, we baseball enthusiasts in France!
But let’s not despair: France shines in its world-leading position in Baseball5. More and more young athletes are starting to break through abroad each year. We’re not yet at the level of basketball with a Parker or a Wembanyama, but the planets are slowly aligning in that direction!
