MLB Expansion Team to Salt Lake City?

MLB Expansion Team to Salt Lake City?

13 April, 2023

A company located in Salt Lake City that wants to seek an MLB expansion team in the upcoming years is led by Gail Miller, a previous owner of the Utah Jazz for many years.

According to ESPN, the group is called Big League Utah. Along with Miller, it is said to also include the Larry H. Miller Company, which was established by Gail’s late husband, a number of nearby companies, and Utah-based former MLB players Dale Murphy and Jeremy Guthrie.

A number of communities have put their names up to host an MLB team in the future, including Salt Lake City. Other cities include Charlotte, North Carolina; Portland, Oregon; and Nashville, Tennessee.

According to Big League Utah, there are many reasons why Salt Lake City is the ideal location for a new baseball franchise.

A media market larger than that of San Diego, Kansas City, Cincinnati, and Milwaukee’s four present major-league teams was noted by the Salt Lake City group’s leaders. They emphasized Utah’s rapid population expansion, which increased from 2010 to 2020 from its current population of roughly 3.3 million to approximately 2.7 million along the Wasatch Front, which runs from Ogden to Provo. Additionally, the state of Utah had the fourth-lowest unemployment rate in the nation in February, at 2.4%, according to the group, and its economy has been hailed in recent years as one of the healthiest in the nation.

Big League Utah claims that the region is prepared for a new franchise, and Rob Manfred, the league’s commissioner, stated in July that he “would love to get to 32 teams.” But first, we need to take care of some other matters. The stadium leases for the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays, two teams with substantial, ongoing attendance problems, expire in a few years (A’s in 2024 and Rays in 2027). Although they both desire new stadiums, neither one seems to be close to receiving one. If stadium agreements aren’t reached, one or both clubs can relocate to a different city.

Two-time National League MVP Dale Murphy, who retired and moved to Utah, thinks Salt Lake City is the ideal location for MLB to locate a new franchise once everything has been resolved.

According to Murphy, it is now. “It is possible. And that would be a fantastic market. Here, baseball is enjoyed to a healthy degree.