Is Salt Lake City emerging as a leader contender for MLB expansion?

Salt Lake City appears to be gaining steam as a popular choice for Major League Baseball expansion as more national observers jump on the bandwagon.

And local enthusiasm for a possible new franchise was on full display as the Larry H. Miller Company this week announced the latest step in its $3.5 billion development on the city’s long-neglected west side that could someday include a big league ballpark.

An article in The Athletic this week called Utah “a sports boomtown” and MLB expansion frontrunner.

“Readiness has put Utah at an advantage. While other cities announced their entries into MLB expansion consideration with renderings and merch, Salt Lake City arrived with a 100-acre site, a coalition of prominent Utahns, broad bipartisan support, a plan for public funding and a reputable anchor investor,” baseball senior writer Steve Nesbitt wrote in the story.

“Commissioner Rob Manfred wants the league’s next expansion cities settled before he retires in 2029. Utah’s Power District presents a turnkey option.”

In addition to being shovel-ready, the site is minutes from the Salt Lake City International Airport and downtown and sits on a light-rail line.

Mad about Salt Lake City

Earlier this month, popular sports radio personality Chris “Mad Dog” Russo talked about where he thought baseball would go when it expands to 32 teams.

“I think you will see by the time Manfred leaves in ’29— and he is gonna leave — I think you will see an announcement that, whatever year it might be, there will be two new teams in baseball and I think Salt Lake City and Nashville will be the two teams,” he said, per YahooSports.

Those two cities aren’t alone in the sweepstakes for an expansion franchise. Portland, Oregon; Charlotte, North Carolina; Orlando, Florida, and Austin, Texas, could be in the running. Mexico City and Montreal have come up as well.

On separate podcasts in 2024, ESPN baseball analyst Buster Olney and Cy Young Award winner David Cone said that after Nashville, Salt Lake City seems the most likely city for an expansion franchise.

“If I’m just sitting here guessing today, and that’s all it is is a guess, I think it’s going to be Salt Lake City,” Olney said on the “Baseball Tonight” podcast.

Cone offered his opinion on his podcast, “Toeing the Slab,” calling Nashville the No. 1 contender.

“There’s a lot of talk about Portland, Oregon, at one point, but I think Salt Lake City, Utah, might have moved ahead,” he said. “That’s my handicap right now, but expansion will be on the horizon. We will get two new teams. Nashville will be one, and Salt Lake City will be the other.”

Salt Lake City’s profile as a potential baseball town has continued to rise since then.

Making a splash

On Thursday, the Miller Company, which spearheads Big League Utah, a coalition of prominent Utahns supporting the effort to land an MLB team, held a news conference to announce the hiring of a landscape architect and urban design firm for a key element of its Power District project. Field Operations is tasked with restoring and enhancing the dirty Jordan River running through the heart of the district to the Great Salt Lake.

Miller Company CEO Steve Starks told the Deseret News the company is working with ballpark architects on site plans for where a stadium would go, how it would be oriented and seating capacity. Generally, it would be located on the west side of the river facing the Wasatch Mountains. Home run balls leaving the park could land in the Jordan River.

Visions of McCovey Cove outside Oracle Park in San Francisco immediately danced in people’s heads, including that of state Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan.

“This is the continued momentum on our promise to this area, to this neighborhood, to our community, to the river, to the lake and to our state,” he said at the news conference.

“With this dream: that in April of 2032, this river will be full of kayaks, canoes and fishing nets of people waiting to catch the first home run by a left-handed batter hit into this river with Utah’s Major League Baseball team.”

Starks said he doesn’t know the dimensions of the ballpark yet but “that will be a really cool feature. . . . but I’m assuming Aaron Judge could probably knock one into the river.”

The appropriately titled Stephen James, Larry H. Miller Real Estate chief visioning officer, said this:

“The riverside location is our preferred site for a major league ballpark, where Utah can gather along a lovely setting on these shaded banks on a summer evening and enjoy a game of baseball.

“Once composed with a walkable mixed-use neighborhood and a world-class ballpark, the Jordan River will become a destination that elevates our quality of life, strengthens our community, and welcomes our guests.”

Starks shared that image, saying if the day comes that Salt Lake City has a big league team, “imagine what it would mean: a ballpark overlooking a river, families walking along a shared trail next to that river before the first pitch, a district where sports, nature and community intersect. That’s not just development. That’s placemaking at generational scale.”