Major League Baseball approached the Trump administration about hosting a stand-alone game in a national park, MLB and White House officials confirmed on Sunday.
A National Park Service official visited Grand Teton National Park last week to scout potential locations for the baseball park, according to The Washington Post, which first reported on the outreach.
“The MLB came to the Administration asking if it was possible to host a game at a national park, similar to the Field of Dreams game,” a White House official said in a statement. “This is not a Presidential directive, nor is it being directed by the White House. It’s also not being driven by the Department of Interior.”
MLB proposed hosting a game at a national park following the success of other special event matches, an MLB official told The Washington Sun on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. The league has hosted several games at non-traditional venues — including games in Iowa paying homage to the 1989 “Field of Dreams” movie, a game at a motor speedway and one at an active military fort.
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MLB is also exploring other ideas in addition to a potential game at a national park.
The White House official added that it is the MLB’s “prerogative” to visit any potential game locations at national parks — though “no decisions have been made by the MLB and no permits have been granted by NPS.”
Frank Lands, a deputy director for the National Park Service, visited Grand Teton National Park last week and looked at three potential locations for a baseball park, according to the Post.
Luther Propst, a Teton County commissioner, told The Sun that he spotted Lands on Thursday at the Murie Spirit of Conservation Awards at Murie Ranch, which is located inside the Grand Teton park boundaries.
Propst and another member of the county commission said they did not receive any notice regarding the MLB’s proposal or administration officials scouting locations for the game at the park.
“He didn’t bring up why he was there,” Propst said. “Obviously, I didn’t know anything about it.”
Propst is planning to suggest Monday during the commission’s regularly scheduled weekly meeting that it write a letter to MLB encouraging them to visit their county to “get a sense of why this is a bad idea.” A majority of the commission will have to agree for them to write to the MLB, the White House, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum or the Wyoming congressional delegation, Propst said.
“The response from our constituents has been, ‘Are you kidding me?’” Propst added.
The commissioner also noted that the lack of communication from the Interior Department, which oversees the National Park Service, is notable because Burgum in June 2025 approved Secretarial Order 3434, which directs the department to strengthen its outreach with “gateway communities” — areas adjacent to or that serve as access points to national parks.
“You would think an administration that pushed that idea of S.O. 3434 would make a special effort to communicate with neighboring counties, but in this case, they did not,” Propst said.
The Interior Department and the National Park Service did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
President Donald Trump has embraced hosting sporting events on federal lands in the past year, with several of the events coinciding with the nation’s 250th anniversary. Trump hosted a UFC event on the White House lawn in June and an IndyCar race around the National Mall in August.
National parks do not expressly prohibit hosting sporting events, but official NPS policy for “appropriate use” of the federal lands “emphasize[s] appropriate recreation consistent with the protection of the park.”
Since the start of Trump’s second term, the Interior Department has undergone major staffing shakeups and proposed new ways to organize the NPS that would centralize authority among the larger parks.
The Sun reported in August that Trump administration officials pushed for NPS staff to find a way to enable a land exchange between Yosemite National Park and a private developer to build a road connecting property outside of the park to one of Yosemite’s main thoroughfares.
The proposal generated significant public outcry, with more than 150 lawmakers urging the Interior Department to abandon the land proposal.
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