The Major League Baseball season will begin in Sydney next March, with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks set to play two games at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Fairfax Media can reveal that Sydney has won the rights to host the opening series, marking 100 years since the Chicago White Sox played against a combined NSW team in 1914.

Major League Baseball, the Australian Baseball League and Destination NSW have been working on the project for several years. An official announcement is expected on Thursday.

The move is a massive coup for Australian sport and for Sydney. It is expected the matches will be seen by a global television audience of 175 million, with about 75 million of those viewers in the US alone. The event is also expected to provide a boost to the NSW economy, drawing at least 15,000 overseas tourists and generating tens of millions of dollars to the local economy.

Drawcard: The LA Dodgers and the Arizona Diamondbacks will play two games at the SCG. Credit:Getty Images/AFP

One of the biggest drawcards won’t be playing. Dodgers owner Earvin "Magic" Johnson is a further selling point in what will be one of the biggest events since the Sydney Olympics. A National Basketball Association hall of famer following his exploits for the Los Angeles Lakers, Johnson will watch his team play at the SCG on March 22 and 23.



The Dodgers and Diamondbacks are expected to be in Sydney for six days. It is understood that a warm-up game – potentially against an Australian all-star team or the Sydney Blue Sox - could be considered.



When Fairfax Media broke the news of plans to take the event to Sydney on October 26 last year, MLB officials denied the story.



"We are not currently in negotiations with the Dodgers or any team to play in Australia," Major League Baseball spokesman Pat Courtney said at the time.



The negotiations have been a highly guarded secret, with MLB officials threatening to scupper the deal if details were made public.



Jason Moore, the director of sports event-marketing firm Moore Sports, has been working on the project for almost seven years.



"We’ve been to the altar a couple of times and we now believe we’re getting up to bat, so to speak," Moore said last year.



"This will be the biggest sporting event in Sydney since the 2003 Rugby World Cup final. The time zone and the scheduling of the game means we’re maximising the exposure throughout the world. Our planned Sunday afternoon game will go live to the US West Coast at 8pm, prime time on Saturday night. We’re not talking about exhibition games – we’re talking about ... real-deal competition games."



The move to Australia marks just the sixth time that an opening series has been played outside the US, with three previously played in Japan. But rather than just a one-off, Australian officials hope to stage games every four years.

Correction: The original version of this story said the move to Australia marked the sixth time that a series had been played outside the US.