London Stadium, a converted soccer complex, hosted three separate MLB series but won’t be utilized in 2026. (Photo by Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
MLB Photos via Getty Images
A nursery rhyme starts with the ominous words that “London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down.”
Now the London Series has done the same thing in real life.
The two-game series scheduled between the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees next June 13-14 has been scrubbed because of a scheduling conflict with a soccer game.
Since Toronto had been listed as the home team, those games will revert to the Rogers Centre in Ontario.
Traditional Rivals
Launched in 2019, when the Yankees and Boston Red Sox met for two games in the converted soccer stadium, the London Series had been an almost-annual affair except for the virus-shortened season of 2020.
When the series resumed, two other traditional rivals – the Chicago Cubs faced the St. Louis Cardinals – met in 2023, followed by another pair of regional rivals in the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies.
The London Series has been an integral part of Major League Baseball’s plan to promote its players and products to an international audience – or at least beyond North America.
This guide to baseball was published for Australians in 1889 when American pros first brought the game to the island. (Photo by Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images)
Getty Images
In addition to the United Kingdom, regular-season games have been played in such overseas venues as Australia, Korea, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, which is officially a U.S. territory but fields its own teams in the Olympics and World Baseball Classic.
Other Countries
Major-league games have also been played in Hawaii, once the home of a Triple-A team; Dubuque, Iowa, home of the Field of Dreams movie set; and Williamsport, PA, headquarters of Little League Baseball.
Several spring training games have gone international, with host countries including Cuba, Panama, and the Dominican Republic.
The 2026 London series was scrapped because London Stadium houses the West Ham United F.C., a Premier League soccer team whose schedule extends through the end of May.
Its last game at the complex is scheduled for May 24, a date that did not allow enough time for adequate conversion of the field for major-league baseball.
In addition, FOX television network – which would have carried the London Series – had a previous commitment to carry the World Cup of soccer in late May.
The only international games scheduled for this year have already been played: the season-opening contests between the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers in Tokyo last March.
Although the Basic Agreement between owners and players grants permission to schedule games in San Juan, Paris, and Mexico City, financial considerations precluded those venues from appearing on the 2025 schedule. A previous plan to play games in Paris was also rejected when neither sponsorship nor a suitable field could be found.
At the moment, only one international venue is under consideration for next season: an April series in Mexico between the Padres and Diamondbacks.
The history of overseas games began in 1996 when the Mets and Padres played a three-game series in Monterrey, Mexico.
Exposing new audiences to the game is designed to stoke awareness of baseball, its players, and its products – this creating previously untapped revenue streams.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/danschlossberg/2025/09/18/plans-for-2026-ballgames-abroad-collapse-in-conflict-with-soccer/
