SLC Ballpark ‘Next Design’ competition winners announced

SALT LAKE CITY — A big night for Salt Lake City’s Ballpark Next Design competition. On Wednesday night Mayor Erin Mendenhall announced the three winners of each category.

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The competition that spread across the country asked for designs of what to do with Smith’s Ballpark which will no longer be home of the Salt Lake Bees come the 2025 season.

123 applications came in which were eventually narrowed down to nine and then the public chose three winners. One winner from the student, resident, and professional categories.

The competition started back in January when the Larry H. Miller group announced they were taking the Bees down to South Jordan where they will be building a new stadium.

‘This is an exciting night,” Mendenhall said to a large group of community members and others who had gathered at the Urban Indian Center just across the street from the Ballpark at 1300 South and West Temple.

Nicolas Tate Barney and Logan Hall from Utah State won the student category. The idea behind their design was to bring together locals, neighboring communities, and tourist with a unique urban park and shopping, dining and recreation center.

“It’s exciting,” Hall said. “We wanted safe green space. People to have opportunities to get out in nature for families to be able to make memories together.”

Oscar Arvizu won the resident category with his elevated park and biodome design. It would also include a community center, pickleball, basketball and sand volleyball courts.

“I wanted something a little different that could be used year around,” Arvizu said. “some kind of an open space with retail with restaurants.”

And Tessa Arneson and her team won the professional category with a multi-women sports stadium design which also included dinning and other attractions.

“Yes the time is now. It’s 2023 of course. This should be happening. Of course we should get people behind us,” Arneson said. “It’s the only stadium that would be in the entire country for women’s sports.”

But as unique and cool as the competition and designs were, there is still no clue as to what will really happen in the 13 and a half acre site.

“This is not about what is going to happen next necessarily. The whole purpose of this is to throw the idea out there what could happen here,” Mendenhall said.

Related reading:

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• Salt Lake Bees baseball relocating to new field in Daybreak in 2025
• Ballpark residents hear from county officials on potential flooding