"A great city," said no less a sage than Aristotle, "is not to be confounded with a populous one."
That 2,500-year-old observation by the Greek philosopher would please many modern cities, whatever their size, eager for respect and all the amenities a metropolis would have. But people today would probably want to substitute "great city" with a sportier, more up-to-date description. They yearn for a verbal high five.They want to be "big league."
The Salt Lake area has grown by leaps and bounds. In terms of population, it is bigger than, say, Green Bay, Wis., or Chattanooga, Tenn., smallish cities with major-league sports teams.
The Utah Jazz is certainly a brand-name franchise - a contender no less for the championship of the National Basketball Association.
And the Winter Olympic Games are coming in 2002.
But is Salt Lake City "big league"?
"A big-league city, by today's standards, is one that first of all has tremendous facilities for sporting events - probably a major indoor arena, probably a major outdoor arena," notes Dave Checketts, who ought to have a good handle on the definition. A Bountiful native and former president of the Jazz organization, today he's head of Madison Square Garden, as well as the NBA's New York Knicks and the NHL's New York Rangers.
Such a city typically has a substantial convention center, Checketts adds. "It has world-class hotels and restaurants. It has hopefully a vibrant downtown with an attractive night life. There are people these days who, when they go to a convention, when they go to sporting events," like to have a number of other entertainment options as well. "A big-league city probably has an appreciation for the arts, maybe a symphony, maybe a theater and a fair amount of entertainment."
Yes, yes and yes! To paraphrase Bill Murray in "Groundhog Day," we're "close on this one. Really, really close."
Indeed, Salt Lake City "has some of the things it needs to make it a vibrant city," Checketts says. It has, in the past decade, made great strides.
"However," he concludes, "it's still what would be called a secondary market - it's not in the top 20 of big-league cities."
Mayor Deedee Corradini would beg to differ. "I have a tremendous amount of interaction with mayors from all across the country," she says, noting that she is currently vice president and next June becomes president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, "and folks from outside (Utah) perceive us to be a big-league city. When that change happened, I can't say. But that's been the perception for as long as I've been mayor, almost six years now."
John Williams, president of Salt Lake City's Gastronomy restaurant group, would find himself somewhere in the gray zone in between. "My gut tells me that we are in the process of a major upgrade. Whether it's from the minor to the major leagues, I don't know."
Frank Layden, the "been there, done that" president of the Utah Jazz, is the one who sounds the cautionary note:
"You know, what I think is this - I'm not sure you want to be a big-league city. It's too expensive!"
Bigger, better, best?
In his incisive American novels of the 1920s, Sinclair Lewis examined and in some instances satirized what he called "the salesmen of prosperity."
In "Babbitt," his lead character, a businessman who belongs to the "Clan of Good Fellows," wanted his city to be the biggest and the best. He "respected bigness in anything; in mountains, jewels, muscles, wealth or words." In "Main Street," Carol Kennicott had to learn to accept the image and airs of the people in her small town. She needed to achieve "compassion for their assertion of culture. . . , for their pretense of greatness."
Salt Lake City is not immune to such assertions - and pretenses. It has long seen itself as "The Crossroads of the West," and its prouder residents bristle when detractors like British actor Ewan McGregor, who was in town recently to make a film, "dis" the city, saying such things as "There's a paranoia and narrow-mindedness here that I find terrifying."
In fact, Utahns and Salt Lake residents seem downright touchy about how others perceive them.
"I was interested during the NBA Finals that so much conversation was about people's perceptions of Salt Lake City from other parts of the country," says Bruce Granath, vice president of Magicworks Entertainment, the booking firm that, among others, represents the Theater League of Utah. "It seems that for a long time people here have felt defensive or haven't gotten respect from the rest of the country, and it was surprising to me because I think we live in such a great place and ARE big league in so many ways."
"A lot of people still don't know what Salt Lake City is or what we have to offer," admits Corradini. "Often they don't have a perception at all - or have a strange perception. But we are becoming more cosmopolitan."
The primary impression, of course, is that Salt Lake City and Utah are something like 100 percent Mormon, and that the LDS culture is so dominant as to exclude other influences and contributions.
"People cannot believe I can be mayor of the city and not be Mormon," Corradini says. "We have every religion imaginable in the city, and they're surprised."
Notes Granath, "If you make a disparaging remark about New York, New Yorkers rarely feel the need to respond. They usually feel it's so obviously wrong that there's no reason to comment.
"I'd like to see that here."
A symphony and other arts
Many would agree Salt Lake City's modern campaign for wider credibility began in earnest after World War II and really kicked into gear in the 1960s. One of the initial focal points was the Utah Symphony.
"Two, three, four years after the war," civic leaders decided to do something about the symphony, which was a part-time ensemble in those days, says Harold Lundstrom, who was music critic for the Deseret News from the 1950s into the '70s. "They got a man from the Hollywood Bowl. He'd fly in, rehearse in the afternoon, perform and fly home." Conducting the Utah Symphony was, to him, a sideline, he said. That wasn't enough.
Maurice Abravanel changed all that. He took the helm in 1947 and by the early 1950s "wanted the orchestra to have major status," Lundstrom said. To accomplish that, Abravanel argued, the symphony needed increased pay for its musicians, daytime practice - and a full complement of 88 players.
"He wanted a class orchestra," Lundstrom said. "He wanted to be big league."
By the mid-1960s the symphony had apparently arrived. Abravanel and his musicians earned praise for their recordings, especially a series of Mahler symphonies.
"Salt Lake City has an orchestra which is astonishing," an interviewer said in a conversation with Abravanel for the Voice of America. "The Utah Symphony Orchestra is one of the very best in the country. How did it develop in the community of Salt Lake?"
In 1965 the symphony was invited to perform first in Athens, through the influence of pianist Gina Bachauer, and then New York's Carnegie Hall and throughout Europe.
In retrospect, the tour was a very expensive proposition, but it was "a great experience for the kids," Lundstrom says of the musicians, and certainly proved gratifying as far as Utahns were con-cerned.
Commenting on a London Times review that praised the symphony's performance there, the Salt Lake Tribune trumpeted, "This was typical of the response in concert after concert, all of which helps give remote and sparsely populated Utah a global image of cultural attainment which is beyond price."
Other Salt Lake-based arts organizations also met with national and international acclaim in succeeding years. Willem Chris-ten-sen, "who is certainly one of the best choreographers in the world," Lundstrom says, returned to Utah, his native state, after developing the San Francisco Ballet and transformed the Utah Civic Ballet into the regional Ballet West. Other dance companies, such as the Repertory Dance Theatre and Ririe-Woodbury, also earned kudos, and the Utah Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City evolved over the years into one of the best of its kind.
As to whether all this was simply Sinclair Lewis-derided boosterism on the part of the performers and their Utah audiences, Lundstrom believes otherwise.
"I think they just wanted a higher quality of arts performances."
Food - and other pop culture
Few will insist that Salt Lake City is "big league" on the level of a New York or Los Angeles. But just where does it fit in?
"Salt Lake City is certainly not Denver" - a comparison that comes up frequently, and has for decades - "and certainly not the West Coast big cities," says Dave McKay, vice president of United Concerts, a major promoter of concerts and tours. "It is more in line with Portland, or cities like Memphis, Tenn."
But in many obvious ways, the city is becoming a big-league market, says the Magicwork's Granath, and "most visible are the big shows - the Rolling Stones, U2, `Phantom of the Opera,' Prince at the E Center - that are coming to Salt Lake and haven't in the past."
When it comes to fine dining, however, "the level of sophistication is, on a per capita basis, on a par (with those on) either coast," says John Williams of Gastronomy, the corporate parent of such restaurants as the New Yorker, the Market Street Grill and Broiler, the Pierpont Cantina and Baci Trattoria.
A "concept originator," as a national food service magazine put it, Gastronomy finds niches and develops restaurants around various themes. "We liked the idea of being downtown," Williams says, "but there are only so many seats, so we used different concepts."
Many might think that a city can't be big league without having such glitzy national and international chains as the Hard Rock Cafe and Planet Hollywood in town (though both are rumored to be on their way). Williams doesn't agree; most diners-in-the-know do not frequent such places, which he describes as basically high-concept family restaurants.
Sophisticated locals, he says, "will be dining where sophisticated travelers dine."
From McKay's point of reference, the Utah metropolis seems to be coming of age because it is attracting the big-name acts.
Demographics alone do not account for this. Venues in and around the Salt Lake Valley have been added, improved or expanded, but the routing and logistics of tours have always played a role.
"We come up with a lot of dates because of where we are located," McKay says. "On the other hand, we lose a lot because of where we are located. Salt Lake City is isolated. It takes a day or two to get here. Any band going east to west to Seattle, Vancouver, Portland or San Francisco might especially route through Salt Lake City. Those going to Phoenix, San Diego or anywhere in Southern California, we are sort of out of their routes."
But when it comes to performers like Mick Jagger and company, they have to almost want to come here.
"With the Stones, it wasn't about money . . . they wanted to come to a city they hadn't been to before," at least as a monster act, McKay says. "This is a city capable of pulling off shows of that size - the bottom line being to generate enough money" for them to want to come.
The Rolling Stones sold out the University of Utah's Rice Stadium as part of a 150-date tour, "and it came off pretty much perfectly; everybody had a wonderful, wonderful time," McKay says - the excited fans, the band's crew, some of whom were in Utah for a week, and the Stones themselves, though they were in and out in one evening. "It would be hard to do that again," he adds.
A few years ago, the progressive-rock band Pink Floyd was interested in coming to Utah but required a 50,000-seat stadium. In the future, Rice Stadium may fit the bill, he says. The metropolitan area now has about the right number and sizes of performing halls, arenas and stadiums to satisfy just about any need, McKay says.
The Delta Center seats 19,000, The Canyons' outdoor amphitheater 16,000, West Valley's new E Center 10,000, Orem's McKay Center 7,000-8,000, the Capitol Theatre and renovated Kingsbury Hall 1,900. Brigham Young University's Cougar Stadium was expanded to host 65,000, and the U.'s Rice Stadium will seat 46,000 after renovation. Add to that locations, from Provo to Ogden, as varied as Saltair, Franklin Quest Field and the Marriott, Huntsman and Dee Event centers and "I don't think we need any more venues," McKay says.
But while the big shows are great, Granath notes, they do not necessarily reflect the depth of what's available on a regular basis.
His agency represents the Theater League of Utah, which brought such major touring productions as "Cats," "Les Miserables" and "Hello, Dolly!" with Carol Channing to town, but Salt Lake also has "the symphony plus the ballet plus two modern dance companies plus a range of theaters - that we have SLAC (the Salt Lake Acting Company) and Pioneer Theater and all the small theaters is really extraordinary," Granath says.
"People tend to talk about the negatives: the ballet or symphony are struggling in a particular year," he notes. But in most American cities, such institutions are forever struggling - and often failing.
He came to Salt Lake City from Chicago, Granath says, which has 8 million residents living in it or nearby. Chicago had no ballet, although it tried to establish such companies. Though other communities have symphonies, a great many can no longer support a full schedule. San Diego's musicians went on strike; the orchestra was disbanded.
Another Salt Lake plus: public broadcasting.
"In Chicago, and most other cities, there is one public radio station and maybe a college-owned TV station," Granath says. "But we've got four public radio stations and three public TV stations, and I promise you that's probably unprecedented nationwide."
Granath doesn't believe the city needs a "theater row" ("those are generally an attempt to generate traffic downtown," and Salt Lake's
downtown is doing well compared to many), but he would like to see a great midtown museum - one showing off Utah's natural and human history.
"We've got the Indians, the dinosaurs, the pioneers, an extensive geologic history. We've got rock forms and geologic forms not found anywhere else in the world. We've got the Great Salt Lake with a completely unique ecosystem." Utah residents and tourists alike should be able visit Temple Square then drop by to soak up Utah's past, he believes.
Overall, Granath says, "I think we're big league in a lot of ways, but maybe people don't appreciate it as much as those who visit."
Big League or big league
Perhaps the differences of opinion are a matter of capitalization: Could Salt Lake City be "big league" without being "Big League"?
The city has no NFL team. It's not represented in the National Hockey League or in major league baseball, either. That's why it doesn't quite make the big-league grade in Dave Checkett's book.
"I always think of big-league cities as being a major part of the big leagues - sports," he explains. The Utah capital, "in the last decade, has made a lot of progress. The Jazz have been the driving force because they compete in the big league."
The 2002 Winter Olympics may help put the city over the top.
"Salt Lake is going to be in everybody's consciousness for three weeks solely and mentioned many times leading up to it," Checketts says.
Williams would agree with that. "Salt Lake City's image internationally will be greatly enhanced."
Based upon past Olympic Games in Atlanta and Los Angeles, the influx of tourists and enterprises springing up for the short haul may in fact have a briefly negative impact on the local hospitality industry, Williams notes, "but in the long run it's positive for the business community - in fact, it already is happening and may be in force for 10 years. That's where the value is."
The Olympics might convince insecure Utahns that they live in a great place, Granath says. In fact, he worries just a bit that, in the aftermath, they could become arrogant or proud.
There is, of course, another facet to all this:
Should Salt Lake City even aspire to be big league - or simply be what it is?
"I think our egos get in the way," says Layden. "I've been in London and Amsterdam and what have you, and I don't know . . . I can wait to see `Phantom of the Opera'; I don't have to rush to New York and pay $75. I can wait.
"I like Salt Lake City the way it is," he says. "I like our theater, I like our symphony, I like our opera, our ballet, our sports." The mix of college and professional teams is appealing, Layden says, and when it comes down to it, "I like Triple A baseball better than major league baseball."
Layden points to Phoenix as a once-modest city with good college teams, a retirement haven, that has gone big-league, possibly to the detriment of its residents and sports fans. "You have to spread the entertainment dollar around between big colleges, and they now have pro basketball, football, hockey and baseball. You look at the good seats - they're all taken by the corporations. The blue-collar guy can't afford them.
"I hope we never get too big too fast," Layden says, "because I've lived in big cities, and I don't think they're worth it."
McKay would say amen to that. Big-league cities, he observes, are not always all they're cracked up to be.
"I moved from New York to Salt Lake City to improve the quality of life for me and my family," he says. "I lived in Denver for 15 years and saw an overnight explosion, and I wouldn't trade Salt Lake City for anything in the world."
Cities like New York have down sides, including traffic, overcrowding and crime. "It's big and grimy and dirty and crowded and people are unhappy and clean air (is getting) less clean.
"I've always seen Salt Lake as a city that's progressing and getting bigger, but in my estimate at a safe and healthy rate."
"I love New York," says Checketts, "and I've lived in Boston, and I think Boston is much more livable than New York - and Boston is a big-league city.
"If you define major leagues by sports teams, then Salt Lake City has a ways to go, but I think there are a whole lot of people, maybe a majority of the population, who don't care if you get there."
If having four major-league teams requires 5 million people in Utah, maybe nobody wants to "get there," Checketts says.
"They're not pushing that because there is a quality of life there that's very precious, and now, when people sit on the freeway for two hours during construction - a fairly new occurrence - I think they may be asking themselves whether they want to be major league.
"It takes me one hour and 15 minutes to get home every night," from New York to Connecticut, he says. "It used to take me 15 when I lived in Salt Lake. . . . I can phone, read or write letters (because, unlike most Utahns, he's chauffeured to work), but I'd just as soon be home."
Big, but not huge
Williams says the best cities not only have the amenities, they know how to play up their uniqueness. To be big-league, Salt Lake City doesn't "have to get huge - but we have to do well what we do."
And Salt Lake City is unique, Corradini says, with unrivaled proximity to mountains, canyons and deserts. "I've traveled a lot, and that's what really sets us apart: spectacular beauty and the outdoors so close to the metropolitan area."
These contribute to the city's attractive quality of life, she says.
"I moved here from the East Coast. I'd never been here." The setting and the access to outdoor recreation surprised Corradini. In New York it was a hassle to go anywhere, let alone somewhere for recreation. "Here, in five minutes from downtown, you can go hiking up a canyon. In winter you can go skiing in 40 minutes. Where else in America can you do that?"
On this particular day, the mayor had been escorting a federal official from Washington, D.C., showing her the Gateway area and downtown.
"And she said, `Wow, you have a hidden jewel here.' I took her up to the north bench where she could look over the city and she could not believe it."
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Considering your view of Salt Lake City, do you see the city as a "big league" city like Portland, Seattle and Denver?
Yes 48%
No 49%
Don't know 3%
IF NO: Should Salt Lake City strive to achieve "big league" status?
Yes 17%
No 74%
Don't know 8%
This poll of 606 Utah residents was conducted by Dan Jones & Associates Dec. 18-20, 1998. It has a margin of error of +/-4 percent.
*****
Is Salt Lake big league?
A comparison of three cities
New York
Team League Venue Capacity
New York Giants NFL Giants Stadium 78,000
New York Jets NFL Giants Stadium 78,000
New York Yankees AL Yankee Stadium 57,545
New York Mets NL Shea Stadium 55,601
New York Knicks NBA Madison Square Garden 19,763
New York Islanders NHL Nassau Memorial Arena 16,297
New York Rangers NHL Madison Square Garden 19,763
(New York also has the WNBA Liberty, which plays in a scaled-down Madison Square Garden)
Denver
Team League Venue Capacity
Denver Broncos NFL Mile High Stadium 75,123
Denver Nuggets NBA McNichols Arena 16,500
Colorado Rockies NL Coors Field 50,249
Colorado Avalanche NHL McNichols Arena 16,500
(Denver also has the women's basketball team ABL Xplosion, and a professional soccer team, the Rapids)
Salt Lake City
Team League Venue Capacity
Utah Jazz NBA Delta Center 19,000
Utah Starzz WNBA Delta Center 8,900*
*Starzz play in a scaled-down version of the Delta Center.
Other Utah venues and their seating capacities:
Cougar Stadium, Brigham Young University (Provo), 65,000
Rice Stadium, University of Utah - 32,500 currently; 46,000 in 1998
The Canyons amphitheater (Snyderville, Summit County) - 16,500
The E Center (home of the Grizzlies; West Valley City) - 10,000
LDS Church's new assembly building - 21,000
Marriott Center, Brigham Young University - 23,000
Huntsman Center, University of Utah - 15,000
Franklin Quest Field (home of the Buzz) - 12,500 fixed; 15,500 with berm
Dee Event Center (Ogden) - 11,600
The McKay Center, Utah Valley State College - 8,000
Saltair - 3,000
Abravanel Hall - 2,900
Capitol Theatre - 1,900
Kingsbury Hall, University of Utah - 1,900