Could now be the perfect time to add another Major League Baseball franchise north of the border? Vancouver mayor Ken Sim seems to think so.

A day after announcing the intention to bring a motion to city council aiming to bring an MLB team to Vancouver, Sim joined Sportsnet’s Blair & Barker to discuss why the time is right and why the city is right.

“I can tell you, our council, the councillors in my party are very excited about it,” Sim said. “But there is a lot of excitement.

“You look at what happened last year with the magical run that the Jays had, you could tell there’s a huge appetite (for baseball) right across this country, and specifically in Vancouver,” Sim said, referring to the popularity of the Toronto Blue Jays and baseball as a whole in the city, particularly during the team’s run to the World Series last year.

“Vancouver’s right, and we want to make that when this opportunity comes up, we’re not flat-footed. We’re being proactive as a city council to make sure that … we have our ducks in a row. That we’re not the bottleneck that stops a team from coming to Vancouver.

Sim is set to put forth the motion on April 22, and although MLB hasn’t clearly expressed that expansion is in the works, the mayor says the intention for the time being is to make sure the city is prepared for when it is.

Commissioner Rob Manfred has mentioned that he would like to grow the league to 32 teams, saying in January that “I would like to expand. I think 32 would be good for (MLB),” and that he would like to set the wheels in motion before his term ends in January 2029, when he has made it clear he will retire.

“I truly believe in being proactive. These are short windows, and at the end of the day, one of the big reasons why we have to wrap this up as a city is we have to show Major League Baseball that Vancouver is a credible location and the city’s on board,” Sim said. “This is part of keeping it on the commissioner’s timeline.”

Although he’s taken only the first few steps toward possible expansion to the city, Sim believes that, should the motion go through, Vancouver would stand a good chance at locking down a team because of its unique geography.

“We’re the gateway to Asia, and so we could actually be quite strategic for Major League Baseball as they’re looking at expanding in other markets digitally,” he said. “We’re unique in Vancouver. (We have) a lot of (things) the other cities that are looking for expansion teams just don’t have.”

Additionally, Manfred said in an interview with Sportsnet in October that “another city in Canada clearly could work for us,” when he was asked about the possibility of expansion to Vancouver.

Before anything concrete comes together, however, a few key details will have to be hammered out. For one, Sim said that no location for a potential new stadium has been decided and that he’s “leaving it up to the bidders.”

“Any party that puts in an expression of interest — show us where they want the location and show us how they’re going to fund it, and show us why it’s gonna be great to not only win the bid, but also why it would be great for the residents of Vancouver and the region and Western Canada,” Sim said.

Sim made it clear that the city won’t allocate public funding in the form of subsidies or tax breaks, and will instead put that in the hands of any interested parties. Rather, he hopes that putting the motion forward will give potential bidders the opportunity to “put their name in the hat and show us why they should be the partner,” in an effort to show MLB that both the city and the interested party are working in tandem, should the window for expansion open.

“We’re looking for parties to show us where they’re at right now, where their interest lies, and how they’re gonna do it,” Sim said. “And then, from there, we can start fleshing this out and have a credible bid presented in front of Major League Baseball.”