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As snow fell during the University of Utah’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new on-campus ballpark, it wasn’t exactly picture-perfect baseball weather.
That didn’t diminish the excitement from university leaders and Utah baseball players as they marked the official opening of Charlie Monfort Field at America First Ballpark — the culmination of a dream years in the making.
For more than 25 years, Utah’s baseball program has played its games at Smith’s Ballpark, the former home of the Salt Lake Bees, while evaluating its options for an eventual on-campus ballpark of their own over the course of a decade. When the Bees announced their move to a new stadium in Daybreak in January 2023, it heightened the need for Utah to have its own facility even more.
In April 2023, the school announced plans for a new ballpark on Guardsman Way, and less than three years later, that vision has become a reality.
Utah’s new $39 million state-of-the-art stadium will provide the baseball team with a much-needed on-campus home. The majority of the stadium cost was privately funded with major donations from Colorado Rockies owner Charlie Monfort, a Utah alum, and America First Credit Union.
Over the past couple of decades, the baseball team has been essentially split between three areas: an on-campus practice field, Smith’s Ballpark and various on-campus athletic areas like weight rooms and dining halls.
The move to Charlie Monfort Field at America First Ballpark brings everything in-house.
The field was among the first aspects of the new stadium to be finished, and the team has been practicing on it since August. That’s given them plenty of time to adjust to the differences between the new stadium and Smith’s Ballpark.
The playing surface is turf, not grass and dirt like at Smith’s Ballpark, and the dimensions are different. The wall in left and right field is 340 feet, with the center-field fence at 400 feet, compared to a 345-foot left field, 420-foot center field and 315-foot right field at Smith’s Ballpark.
The early results from practices? The ball is traveling pretty well.
“Pitching coaches, beware,” said Utah coach Gary Henderson.
The team will officially move into the new stadium this week, starting a new era of Utah baseball as the Utes get ready for their third season in the Big 12 Conference.
“I think the first thing it does is it gives our kids a home, a sense of belonging, a sense of purpose. It’s a tremendous facility to prepare, to get prepared, obviously going to help very much in the recruiting process,” Henderson said.
The new ballpark provides all of the amenities needed for the program under one roof, including a state-of-the-art locker room, a film room, a strength and conditioning room and a recovery room with hot and cold tubs. An indoor training area with pitching and batting areas provides the team a place to train in the winter months.
In addition to the aspects of the stadium that are used for performance, the new ballpark also gives the team a place to hang out while they’re not practicing or going to class. The lounge area will be a huge hit with the players.
“Having something like this to call home is great, and it also makes it that much better when you get to show up to a place where 34 of your best friends are and you get to work together towards the same goal together every day,” said redshirt junior infielder Cameron Gurney.
The stadium has a capacity of 3,000 — 1,200 chairback seats and 1,800 capacity on the berm in the outfield — which will provide a much more intimate experience than Smith’s Ballpark, which was cavernous in comparison with a capacity of 14,511. There is truly no bad seat in the house, as every chairback seat is within a few rows of the field, providing fans with an up-close view of the game
Based on last season’s attendance at Smith’s Ballpark, Utah athletic director Mark Harlan said that the Utes would have sold out nine games at the new ballpark.
Season tickets range from $75 to $125 for the 24-game home schedule.
“I imagine, particularly on good weather weekend-type games, this place is going to be packed, but season tickets are going really well,” Harlan said.
Aside from hosting Utah baseball games and practices, Harlan envisions the new stadium as a community space for baseball in the state.
“I want some high school games here, I want some state championship games here. We’re already working to get some regular-season games here, especially from high schools that are close by, and then further, get some Little League games here. I want to get some travel games here,” Harlan said.
“I mean, we’ve got turf. We can use it, and so I think that’s going to be really, really important for us. This is a community asset, and it’s located right by great communities.”
With the official opening of Charlie Monfort Field at America First Ballpark, Utah baseball now has a true home — something that will pay dividends for the program long into the future.
“It’s been a long time coming … I think what folks will start seeing when they visit this facility is how fun it is," Harlan said. “It’s perfect for our program. I think it’s going to really lift us to places that we want to be. And frankly, it’s kind of a big missing piece that we’ve solved. They have a home here now, and we couldn’t be more excited.”
Now that the ballpark is officially open and the baseball team is moving in, the countdown is on for the facility’s first game: Utah vs. Grand Canyon on March 7.
“It shows the statement that baseball is important to the athletic department, the tremendous visual that you have when you look out to center field,” Henderson said.
“It’s just a really nice statement that the athletic department has made that baseball is important at the University of Utah.”
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