Don Fehr, executive director of the Major...

Don Fehr, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Assn., told the District of Columbia Baseball Commission there are “many cities that can support franchises that don’t have major league baseball.”

Fehr was in the nation’s capital to help present a study commissioned by the players’ union to examine 23 markets pursuing a franchise. Last month, the Senate Baseball Task Force threatened to consider removing baseball’s antitrust exemption unless a timetable for expansion is established.

Owners representative Barry Rona said in New York that the union is pushing expansion for selfish reasons “to create jobs for their members.”