On Saturday, The Washington Post reported that National Park Service Deputy Director Frank Lands recently visited Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming to look at three potential locations on the park’s grounds for a baseball field. While national parks contain developed infrastructure such as lodges, roads and visitor facilities, a permanent Major League Baseball stadium on protected federal land would likely involve making significant changes to the environment. Newsweek reached out to the Interior Department, MLB and NPCA via email for comment.
The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) released a statement on Sunday that slammed the idea of a baseball park in Grand Teton. Tiernan Sittenfeld, president and CEO for NPCA, said: “A backpacking trip in Grand Teton as a teenager instilled a lifelong love of our national parks in me. I was thrilled to be back there just a couple of weeks ago and to see first-hand just how much visitors and the local community continue to love, respect and fiercely defend this iconic park.
It’s long past time for this administration to start treating our national parks with the respect they deserve, starting with full funding and park staffing, instead of more harmful proposals for private profit.” Buffington added: “If this administration is willing to carve out a piece of Grand Teton for special interests, they would be turning their back on a century of enthusiastic bipartisan support and a legacy of national parks that are, in the words of President George H. Bush, our ‘common heritage borrowed from future generations which should be passed on as a precious inheritance.’” Despite reports of visits to the site and upset conservationist groups, the White House said in a statement that the MLB has asked the administration about hosting a game at a national park, but that the National Park Service has not granted a permit. "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," the White House told Newsweek. "Therefore, this is not a White House or Administration priority." The suggestion of putting the MLB stadium in the Grand Teton park comes as National Parks have seen significant changes under Donald Trump’s second term as president. Trump has made a series of changes impacting the National Park System, including higher fees for international visitors, expanded hunting and access on some federal lands, proposed budget and staffing reductions and a review of historical exhibits and monuments.
The administration’s fiscal 2026 budget proposed $2.1 billion for the National Park Service, including $2 billion for park operations, a contrast to the previous administration’s fiscal 2025 proposal of $3.6 billion in current, including $3.1 billion for park operations. Meanwhile, a federal appeals court allowed the Trump administration to remove exhibits that set "a dangerous precedent of censorship and sanitization." In early 2026, the Interior Department removed or flagged hundreds of items addressing slavery, abolition, civil rights, labor, immigration and women's suffrage. Contact Newsweek editors on this story: John Fitzpatrick and Emma Lee-Sang
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