While longtime Utahns would argue the Beehive State has had a pretty good sports scene for many years, Salt Lake City’s opportunity to host the 2002 Winter Olympics started a sports boom that continues today. And with the possibility of an MLB expansion team lurking out there, expected, Utah looks like it could be a prime location for another growth sport.
This week, Stephen J. Nesbitt, writer for The Athletic, called Utah the frontrunner for an expansion Major League Baseball team.
The reasons for his optimism?
Preparation. And momentum.
Nesbitt, in his nearly 3,200-word essay, “How Salt Lake City evolved into a sports boomtown — and MLB expansion frontrunner," (paywall) details Utah’s past successes while setting the stage for future growth.
The past is familiar to Utah sports fans.
Larry H. Miller bought the Utah Jazz and saved it from relocation in 1985. Miller saw the potential and raised $8 million to keep the organization in Utah.
After a few strategic moves that involved the construction of the Delta Center, the Jazz are thriving, and its influence has helped to close the gap between Utah and rest of the sports world. The Jazz played for the NBA championship in 1997 and 1998.
In 2002, the Winter Olympics came to Utah. The Games were deemed a success by all metrics.
In 2004, Real Salt Lake was created as an expansion team in Major League Soccer, beginning play the next season. And most recently Ryan Smith — who had purchased the Jazz from the Millers — brought the Utah Mammoth to town as the state’s newest addition.
Since the last Olympics in 2002, Utah has added a professional soccer team, a professional hockey team and will potentially add a major league baseball team before 2034.
Most recently, the PGA Tour returned to Utah for the first time since 1963 when the inaugural Black Desert Championship was hosted in Ivins and will run until at least 2027.
The universities athletics programs in Utah have also gone through evolutions. BYU has made the jump to the Big 12, and Utah made a stop in the former Power Five Pac-12 conference before joining its rival in the Big 12 in 2024. Now Utah State will move from the Mountain West to the new-look Pac-12.
Among the concerns, Nesbitt writes about the perception of the state as a boring place to live and visit.
Nesbitt interviewed Matthew Bowman, the Mormon Studies chair at Claremont Graduate University, who says sports have a way of softening differences. Utah is often seen by the rest of the country as a ‘Mormon’ hub where there’s no fun.
But the 2002 games helped changed that perception, experts say.
When the Winter Olympics come back to the state in 2034 — 32 years later — fans will return to a very different Utah.
Is Utah big enough for another major sports team?
Nesbitt shared an anecdote. Following former two-time baseball MVP Dale Murphy’s retirement, he moved to Utah in 1994.
He was asked if Utah could be home to an MLB team to which he’d reply, “Well there’s not a lot of people that live here,” Murphy said.
But, since the MLB last expanded in 1998, the population of the Salt Lake City-Provo-Orem corridor has roughly doubled, Nesbitt wrote. What was once a concern for expanding Utah’s sports market doesn’t look like a problem anymore, and Utah looks like it’s only going to grow.
After receiving a No. 1 ranking for economic outlook for the 18th year in a row, Utah has become a more attractive place to live. As a result, Salt Lake City is now minority Latter-Day Saints as more and more people discover the desert gem.
Utah now ranks as the 28th largest U.S. media market, ranked ahead of MLB markets like Baltimore, San Diego, Kansas City and Cincinnati.
And the state is not waiting around
Following a 2024 legislative session, a bill passed leading to the construction of a sports and entertainment district being designated.
Of the $900 million granted for the entertainment district which is currently centered around the Delta Center, funds are in place to help attract an MLB expansion team. If the Miller Entertainment Group-backed bid is eventually awarded to Utah, an additional $900 million will be enacted to construct a baseball stadium, Nesbitt reported.
In the article, Utah’s proactive approach to sports expansion was compared to a black-tie event by state Sen. Scott Sandall. As others scramble to get ready he says, “We have our tuxedo on. And we’re there a half hour early.”