But that doesn’t mean the two belong together.
Major League Baseball has approached the Trump administration about the possibility of staging a future game in a national park, and Grand Teton National Park has emerged as a potential location.[1][2] According to recent reporting, National Park Service officials have examined possible locations inside Grand Teton where a temporary ballpark could potentially be constructed.[2]
The idea is apparently inspired by MLB’s increasingly ambitious series of games in unusual locations, including the enormously popular Field of Dreams games in Iowa, historic Rickwood Field in Alabama, and Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee.
There is an important difference, however.
Those places aren’t national parks.
And America’s national parks exist under a very different set of rules.
What Is Actually Being Proposed?
The proposal is still preliminary, and some early reporting has overstated the Trump administration’s role in originating it.
According to the Associated Press and Washington Post, MLB approached the federal government, asking whether a game could be held in a national park. The White House says the idea was not directed by President Trump and is not an administration priority. No site has been approved, and the National Park Service has not issued a permit. With MLB’s 2027 special-event schedule already established, 2028 appears to be the earliest a game could occur.[1][2]
Nevertheless, the proposal has advanced far enough to warrant attention. National Park Service Deputy Director Frank Lands recently visited Grand Teton while MLB representatives were examining potential locations. Initial reporting identified three possible sites, including previously disturbed land used for park operations, although the White House disputed the characterization that Lands himself was actively “scouting” sites.[2]
Some reports have suggested a temporary facility could accommodate roughly 20,000 spectators and require not simply a baseball diamond, but seating, clubhouses, concessions, broadcast facilities, offices, and the infrastructure necessary to support thousands of spectators.[3]
That means the real question isn’t whether baseball is a worthy American tradition.
It unquestionably is.
The question is whether constructing a temporary commercial sports venue inside one of America’s premier national parks is consistent with why national parks exist in the first place.
The Park Service Has a Special Mission
Congress answered that question more than a century ago when it created the National Park Service.
The 1916 Organic Act directed the Park Service to conserve park scenery, natural and historic objects, and wildlife while allowing people to enjoy them in a manner that leaves those resources “unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” That fundamental mandate is now codified at 54 U.S.C. §100101.[4]
That distinction matters.
National parks aren’t simply federally owned recreation areas where any popular activity can be accommodated if somebody can figure out where to put it. Recreation in a national park is supposed to be compatible with the resources and purposes for which that park was established.
Grand Teton protects one of America’s extraordinary landscapes: the Teton Range rising abruptly above Jackson Hole and an ecosystem supporting elk, moose, bison, pronghorn, bears, wolves, and countless other species.
The park also sits at the heart of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The Park Service emphasizes the importance of maintaining interconnected habitat and migration corridors used by wildlife moving through this landscape.[5]
People come to Grand Teton to experience that place.
They don’t need Grand Teton to experience baseball.
The Park Service Has Been Through This Before
In the early decades of the national parks, managers and concessioners sometimes treated parks almost like destination resorts.
Visitors could find entertainment that had little relationship to the places the parks had been established to protect.
Yosemite, for example, once had bowling. A bowling alley operated at Camp Curry before its lanes were removed around 1929. During World War II, when the Ahwahnee was being used as a naval hospital, temporary recreational facilities also included bowling. Those temporary Navy facilities were later removed.[6]
Yosemite also once had a nine-hole golf course near the Ahwahnee. By the 1980s, it had largely reverted to natural vegetation, and the park’s General Management Plan called for removal of its remaining features. The same plan called for removing the Ahwahnee’s tennis courts because they represented an outdoor activity “not directly related to the natural resource.”[7]
At Mount Rainier’s Paradise, concessioners tried a nine-hole golf course. The experiment was short-lived, and the Park Service notes that scars from the course remained visible for decades after nature began reclaiming it. There were also proposals over the years for expanded skiing facilities and ski lifts at Paradise.[8]
At Rocky Mountain National Park, the Park Service eventually removed the remaining greens, tees, drainage structures, and foundations of an old golf course from Moraine Park as part of restoring the landscape.[9]
The Park Service ultimately developed a much clearer philosophy about such development. Its historical administrative policies for natural areas stated the principle about as plainly as possible:
“A national park is not a scenic location for a golf course, amusement park, or a spectator sports event.”[10]
The policy explained that activities whose rewards exist independently of the park do not need to occur inside one.[10]
That sentence could almost have been written specifically for the Grand Teton baseball proposal.
Current NPS policy reflects the same underlying principle in other contexts. For example, Park Service Management Policies prohibit new downhill ski facilities and associated structures in national park areas, explaining that such developments have significant environmental impacts and “should only be provided outside park areas.”[11]
This doesn’t mean golf, skiing, bowling, or baseball are bad activities.
It means there are thousands of appropriate places to enjoy them without turning nationally protected landscapes into venues for them.
Then There Is the Law
The biggest obstacle to a Grand Teton baseball game may not be public opposition.
It may be the Park Service’s own regulation governing special events.
Under 36 CFR §2.50, sporting events and public spectator attractions can be permitted in a national park only when there is a “meaningful association” between the park and the event and the event contributes to visitors’ understanding of the significance of the park.[12]
The regulation also requires the superintendent to deny a permit when an event would cause injury or damage to park resources; be contrary to the purposes for which the park was established; unreasonably impair the atmosphere of peace and tranquility maintained in wilderness, natural, historic, or commemorative locations; substantially impair park operations; or create an unacceptable conflict with other existing uses.[12]
That raises an obvious question:
What is the meaningful association between Major League Baseball and Grand Teton National Park?
Grand Teton wasn’t established to commemorate baseball history. No famous Major League game occurred there. Baseball doesn’t help visitors understand the Teton Range, Jackson Hole, wildlife migration, geology, Indigenous history, or the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
The regulation therefore appears to present a substantial legal hurdle even before environmental impacts are considered.
Grand Teton’s own current special-use rules make the problem even clearer. The park says events will not be permitted if they alter the movement of visitors, wildlife, or traffic. Roads and trails cannot be closed for an event. Events cannot occur in areas managed as wilderness. Commercial logos, banners, and tent-like structures are also prohibited under the park’s listed event conditions.[13]
Try imagining a nationally televised Major League Baseball game for perhaps 20,000 spectators without affecting traffic, visitor movement, or wildlife and without commercial signage or substantial temporary structures.
Then there is NPS Management Policy 8.6.2.
The policy states that the Park Service will not permit an event in an area open to the public, or close such an area for an event, when the event is conducted primarily for the material or financial benefit of a for-profit entity, requires in-park advertising or publicity, or charges a separate public admission fee.[14]
A Major League Baseball game would have to be structured in a way that satisfies those requirements as well.
That appears, at minimum, extraordinarily difficult.
Because no final proposal, permit application, environmental review, or agency decision has been released, it would be premature to declare that a court has determined the proposal illegal. But existing federal regulations and Park Service policies create serious legal and administrative obstacles that the government and MLB would have to overcome.
“Temporary” Doesn’t Mean Impact-Free
Supporters might reasonably point out that MLB isn’t proposing a permanent Yankee Stadium beneath the Tetons.
The facility would presumably be temporary.
But temporary development can still have consequences.
Local officials and conservation advocates have raised concerns about habitat fragmentation, artificial light, noise, increased human presence around wildlife, traffic, and additional strain on park and community infrastructure. Critics have also warned about the precedent of allowing a major commercial entertainment event inside a protected national park.[1][15]
That concern deserves particular attention in Grand Teton.
Wildlife doesn’t always distinguish between a permanent disturbance and a temporary disturbance. Thousands of vehicles, stadium lighting, generators, construction equipment, fencing, broadcast infrastructure, and tens of thousands of people can affect an area even if everything is hauled away afterward.
The question isn’t simply whether workers could restore a site after the final out.
The question is why those impacts should occur inside a national park at all when the event could take place somewhere else.
This Is About More Than One Baseball Game
The most important issue may be precedent.
If Grand Teton can become the backdrop for a Major League Baseball game, what comes next?
Could Yosemite host an NFL exhibition?
Could Yellowstone host a major concert?
Could Olympic host a championship golf event?
Those examples are hypothetical, but they illustrate the larger question facing the Park Service.
At some point national parks cease being places where Americans experience extraordinary landscapes and become extraordinary landscapes used as backgrounds for commercial entertainment.
The Park Service spent much of the twentieth century learning that lesson.
Some activities are perfectly worthwhile and perfectly inappropriate inside a national park.
Baseball belongs in ballparks.
Grand Teton should remain Grand Teton.
What Concerned Citizens Can Do
Because no permit has been issued and no formal public-review process for the baseball proposal is currently listed by Grand Teton, citizens interested in the issue can make their views known now and watch for any formal proposal later.[16]
Concerned citizens can:
Contact Grand Teton National Park. Ask park officials how any MLB proposal would satisfy the requirements of 36 CFR §2.50, the Organic Act, and NPS Management Policies.[17]
Contact the Department of the Interior. Interior oversees the National Park Service and provides channels for members of the public to submit comments and questions.[18]
Watch for a formal planning or environmental review. If NPS opens a public-comment period, submit substantive comments addressing wildlife, traffic, noise, lighting, visitor displacement, infrastructure, commercial use, and consistency with 36 CFR §2.50.[16]
Contact members of Congress. Congress created the National Park System's governing framework and exercises legislative, oversight, and appropriations authority affecting the National Park Service. Citizens can ask their representatives and senators to seek information about the proposal, its financing, environmental review, and compliance with existing park laws.
Contact Major League Baseball. MLB initiated the inquiry, according to current reporting. People who care about both baseball and national parks can tell the league whether they believe Grand Teton is an appropriate venue.[1]
The good news is that nothing has been approved yet.
And perhaps that is where this idea should end.
Two Great American Ideas—That Don’t Need to Share a Field
Baseball and national parks are both deeply woven into American culture.
We can celebrate both without turning one into a venue for the other.
The genius of the national park idea is that Americans deliberately chose to set some extraordinary places apart from the ordinary pressures of commerce and development. Grand Teton isn’t valuable because somebody can figure out how to build a baseball diamond there.
It is valuable because generations of Americans made the opposite choice.
They decided not to build.
A century of national park management has taught us that not every enjoyable activity belongs inside a national park. Sometimes protecting these places requires saying that a perfectly good idea belongs somewhere else.
Major League Baseball has stadiums, minor-league parks, historic ballfields, speedways, military installations, and Iowa cornfields available for special games.
There is only one Grand Teton.
Let’s keep it that way.
Annotated References
[1] Associated Press. “Trump administration considering MLB game at Grand Teton National Park.” September 2026.
https://apnews.com/article/b408fe1bd4c20c77120b2d8301dad9c0
Useful independent reporting on the origins and status of the proposal. AP reports that MLB approached the federal government, addresses the White House response, and explains that no game has been approved. This is an important source for distinguishing an MLB proposal being considered by federal officials from a presidential directive.
[2] The Washington Post. “Trump officials weigh MLB game in Grand Teton National Park.” September 26, 2026.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2026/09/26/trump-officials-weigh-mlb-game-grand-teton-national-park/
Detailed reporting on discussions involving MLB and federal officials, including consideration of possible locations within Grand Teton and the involvement of senior National Park Service officials.
[3] Ballpark Digest. “MLB, Trump Administration Eye 2028 Game in Grand Teton National Park Ballpark.” September 27, 2026.
https://ballparkdigest.com/2026/09/27/mlb-trump-administration-eye-2028-game-in-grand-teton-national-park-ballpark/
Provides additional reporting about what a temporary MLB venue could entail, including potential attendance and the infrastructure necessary to stage a Major League game.
[4] U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 54 U.S.C. §100101 — Promotion and Regulation of National Park System.
https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title54-section100101
The primary statutory source for the National Park Service's fundamental conservation mandate, derived from the 1916 Organic Act. It establishes the famous requirement that park resources be conserved so they remain unimpaired for future generations.
[5] National Park Service. “Grand Migrations,” Grand Teton National Park.
https://www.nps.gov/grte/learn/nature/grand-migrations.htm
NPS background explaining the importance of wildlife movement and migration in and around Grand Teton and the park's relationship to the larger Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
**[6] National Park Service History Collection. Camp Curry Cultural Landscape Report, Yosemite National Park. **
https://npshistory.com/publications/yose/camp_curry_clr.pdf
Historical NPS documentation of Camp Curry and its recreational development. It provides useful context for the era when national parks sometimes accommodated resort-style recreational facilities, including bowling.
[7] National Park Service. “Tennis Court Restoration,” Yosemite National Park.
https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/nature/tenniscourtrestoration.htm
Documents the Park Service's removal of the Ahwahnee tennis courts and restoration of the site. Particularly relevant because NPS explains that the activity was not directly related to Yosemite's natural resources.
[8] National Park Service. “Harmonizing Paradise,” Mount Rainier National Park.
https://www.nps.gov/articles/harmonizing-paradise.htm
NPS historical discussion of development at Paradise, including the short-lived golf course and the evolution toward development more compatible with the national park landscape.
[9] National Parks Traveler. “Remnants of Golf Course Being Removed at Rocky Mountain National Park.” August 2008.
https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2008/08/remnants-golf-course-being-removed-rocky-mountain-national-park
Documents restoration work removing remaining features of the former Moraine Park golf course. It illustrates the broader historical movement away from recreational developments unrelated to park resources.
**[10] National Park Service History Collection. Administrative Policies for Natural Areas of the National Park System. **
https://npshistory.com/publications/admin_policies/policy2-part2.htm
One of the most relevant historical sources for the Grand Teton controversy. The policy explicitly states: “A national park is not a scenic location for a golf course, amusement park, or a spectator sports event.” It demonstrates that the question of using spectacular park landscapes as settings for unrelated recreation is not new.
**[11] National Park Service. Management Policies 2006. **
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/policy/upload/MP_2006_amended.pdf
The Park Service's comprehensive management policy document. Among other subjects, it addresses recreational development and states that new downhill ski facilities and associated structures will not be allowed in national park areas. The policy provides contemporary context for NPS's approach to recreational facilities that can be provided outside parks.
[12] 36 CFR §2.50 — Special Events. Cornell Legal Information Institute.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/36/2.50
Perhaps the most important legal authority directly applicable to the proposed game. The federal regulation specifically addresses sporting events and spectator attractions in national parks. It requires a meaningful association between the park and the event and requires that the event contribute to visitor understanding of the park's significance. It also identifies circumstances requiring denial of a permit.
[13] National Park Service. “Permits and Reservations,” Grand Teton National Park.
https://www.nps.gov/grte/planyourvisit/permitsandreservations.htm
Grand Teton's current information concerning permits and special uses. Particularly relevant for understanding park-specific restrictions affecting events, traffic, wildlife movement, structures, and commercial displays.
[14] National Park Service. Management Policies 2006, Chapter 8 — Use of the Parks, §8.6.2.
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/policy/mp-8-use-of-parks.htm
Highly relevant to the commercial dimensions of an MLB game. The policy addresses special events involving for-profit entities, advertising and publicity, separate admission fees, public areas, and closures.
[15] Yahoo Sports/Front Office Sports. “‘Shortsighted’: Environmental Groups Sound Alarm on MLB Grand Teton Idea.” September 2026.
https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/shortsighted-environmental-groups-sound-alarm-182742398.html
The article that prompted this post. It summarizes concerns raised by conservation advocates and others about wildlife, artificial lighting, habitat, infrastructure, commercialization, and the precedent a Major League Baseball game could establish.
[16] National Park Service. “Planning and Public Involvement,” Grand Teton National Park.
https://www.nps.gov/grte/getinvolved/planning.htm
The park's official portal for planning activities and opportunities for public involvement. Readers can monitor this page for a future formal proposal or public-comment opportunity concerning the MLB event.
[17] National Park Service. “Contact Us,” Grand Teton National Park.
https://www.nps.gov/grte/contacts.htm
Official contact information for Grand Teton National Park. This provides readers with a direct means of communicating questions and concerns to park officials.
[18] U.S. Department of the Interior. “Contact Us.”
https://www.doi.gov/contact-us
Official contact portal for the cabinet department overseeing the National Park Service. This provides another avenue for citizens who want to communicate with federal officials about the proposal.
###
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