Bringing baseball back: Justin Timberlake joins effort to get Nashville an MLB franchise

Vera Anderson/WireImageJustin Timberlake is already involved with a Tennessee basketball team, having become a minority owner of the Memphis Grizzlies in 2012. Now, he wants to use his platform to help bring a baseball team to his home state.

The Nashville Tennessean reports that Justin has teamed with a group called Music City Baseball to work to bring a MLB franchise to Nashville.  The team already has a name: The Nashville Stars.

“I am thrilled to be involved in the movement to bring Major League Baseball to the great state of Tennessee,” Justin said in a statement, according to the paper.  “I believe in Music City Baseball’s vision of linking baseball and music in a unique way to unite and entertain people, and I am excited to help generate awareness throughout the community as we share our vision for bringing MLB to Music City.”

Baseball exec Dave Dombrowski has become an investor in the team.  According to the paper, he told reporters that Justin’s involvement is “huge.”

“He supports baseball and all of the other things that we stand for,” said Dombrowski. ” Having someone like that involved speaks a lot for his interest in making this work and also gives us support in talking to other individuals of this ilk. It’s extremely important to us.”  

One thing that attracted JT to the campaign is that the group’s leader, John Loar, wants to create a diverse ownership group.  The team’s name is a tribute to one of the Negro League baseball teams that played in Nashville in the 40s and 50s.

“Our conversations with Justin led us to starting a diversity oversight committee. To make sure that we’re doing more than we say and to hold us accountable on the equity side of this investment,” Loar added.

By Andrea Dresdale
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