[FuzzyRussianHat]

Chinese League Baseball had seen two expansions previously, adding six teams in 2008 and two in 2030. CLB had originally used a format without divisions, but switched to four divisions of four apiece per league in 2030 with 32 total teams. The divisional format had proven unpopular, especially as only division champs advanced. Many officials wanted to scrap that as they wanted to do another big expansion to try to compete on the global stage.

Certainly with more than a billion citizens, China had plenty of cities with the population and infrastructure to support a big-league team. After investigating sites and taking bids in the 2030s, CLB came up with a plan to add four teams to each league; the eight new squads bringing them up to 40 teams total.

Joining the Northern League would be the Baotou Bull Moose, Hefei Hawkeyes, Suzhou Salamanders, and Taiyuan Tarantulas. Entering the Southern League was the Fuzhou Fighting Fish, Guiyang Governors, Tibet Terrapins, and Zhongshan Skunks.



Between the lack of support for the divisional format and no clean way to expand and keep the same groupings, CLB opted to revert to the single-division format. Each team would play eight games (two four-game series) against their league opponents, with the remaining ten games as two-game interleague series. The playoff format remained unchanged; the top four teams advanced into the Triple Round Robin. The top two from that go to the best-of-seven semifinal, then the best-of-seven China Series.