One day, I try to take one measly day off of posting, and then this goes and happens:
The Larry H. Miller Company intends to put at least $3.5 billion into a mixed-use development on Salt Lake City’s long-overlooked west side, including a potential Major League Baseball stadium.
Blah blah, “transformational,” “catalytic,” “once-in-a-generation opportunity,” what’s the public price tag, I don’t got all day here, Deseret News:
Thursday’s announcement didn’t include specific details about the proposed ballpark. Big League Utah recently said it envisions a year-round, multiuse stadium for all kinds of events from sports to concerts to community celebrations.
Construction of a ballpark would likely include some public investment. State government officials are averse to diverting taxpayer dollars directly but have acknowledged tax increment financing or a public-private partnership could be options.
Reading between the lines, that comes to “It wasn’t in the Miller Company’s press release, and we didn’t take the time to ask.”
But look, there’s a rendering!
Not a whole lot of detail there, though it has one of those translucent roofs that are all the rage, revealing some kind of fan concourse above the top level of seating and with no actual concessions or even restrooms? Also lots of umbrella tables on the outside of the stadium for fans to sit at during games, this must be in the Stadiums Pro 2024 Clip Art package, because everybody sure is using lots of them.
Needless to say, Salt Lake City doesn’t not have a major-league baseball team, so this would presumably be a plan to keep in the Miller family’s back pocket should an expansion franchise become available, or maybe the Oakland A’s, who knows? But anyway, they’re undoubtedly hoping that “$3.5 billion in private investment” sticks in people’s heads for long enough that they won’t bat an eye when they see how many billions taxpayers may have to put up for the stadium part — umbrellas don’t actually grow on trees, you know!
Always with the “mixed use entertainment district.” A lousy, taxpayer funded stadium at $1 billion is never enough anymore…
It’s a stadium *and* a dessert topping!
Why only look for public money and/or tax breaks for a stadium when they can ask for it for developments that could actually make money when there isn’t a game?
Metropolitan Statistical Area of Salt Lake City is 1.3 million. Las Vegas is 2.3 million. Oakland/San Francisco is 4.5 million.
MSAs aren’t necessarily the most accurate for determining market size. Salt Lake is a bigger TV market than Vegas, for what it’s worth (though both are far, far behind Oakland, and even behind Charlotte, Portland, Indianapolis, and Nashville).
tv market covers more land than an MSA. MSA is more indicative of who would actually attend.
Agreed, but TV market is arguably more important in terms of revenue. Or at least has been — that may change as MLB transitions from cable to streaming, though if the league goes in the direction it’s been indicating (individual streaming subscriptions, with each team getting the proceeds from its own), it may not.
Utah’s RSN territory would make a lot more sense then a Vegas team’s.
Utah- 3.2 million people
Southern Idaho 1.5ish million and growing
Western Wyoming 200,000
You’d probably have to payoff the mariners and Rockies, but it’s a decently sized RSN area that you can build a fanbase around.
Vegas while technically a bigger market would have a pretty terrible RSN (state of Nevada, were the 2nd largest metro is closer to where the A’s used to play then Las Vegas plus what- southern Utah?)
You can’t go by MSA.
Greensboro is only 69th and every sports team in every league is going to be there within five years.
The Salt Lake MSA is weird and really doesn’t work for much of anything. For example, Davis County is less than 5 miles north of the Stadium as well as downtown Salt Lake City, it is not part of the MSA.
Most people use the UA (Urban Area) for the Salt Lake market. It is called the Wasatch Front, it goes covers 4 full counties and 3 partial counties. The UA puts Salt Lake at nearly 2.5 Million. Nearly the entire UA is connected via the single local transit agency for both bus and rail options.
The transit system links the counties together and because of the rail connections, it is possible to take a single transfer train ride to and from the stadium (Commuter rail to go N/S, and LRT for the E/W).
It’s amazing how many cities and teams can release renderings…other than the John Fisher Zombie A’s of course.
What’s with the three Gerald Bull-style space guns out beyond the right field pavillion?
Is this one-upmanship on stadium fireworks displays or something?
You know what this means, Greensboro…. even if you can’t find anything better than space guns you now have to build at least six of them.
They are smoke stacks at a power plant – local utility company Rocky Mountain Power’s integrated resource plan states the stacks will remain functional (burning natural gas, not coal) until 2032.