As the suburb tries to land a stadium for Real Salt Lake near the South Towne Expo Center, it is talking about leaving room nearby for a baseball team - maybe the Salt Lake Stingers, maybe something bigger, like Major League Baseball.
On both counts, Sandy's gain would be Salt Lake City's loss. Not only might the capital lose out on a future soccer venue, it also could be left with a team-less Franklin Covey Field.
Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan said Tuesday that Larry Miller approached him a month ago about a ballpark for the Stingers, the Triple-A team Miller is in the process of buying.
The Stingers play at Salt Lake City-owned Franklin Covey Field, 1300 S. West Temple, but the city and Miller are struggling to reach a lease agreement. The city wants to reduce its annual $300,000 maintenance subsidy to $210,000 and have the team pick up the difference.
"[Miller] said if he can't get something worked out with Salt Lake City, he's going to have to find another location," Dolan said. "He asked if there are any locations in Sandy."
Dolan pointed him to the land near Sandy's proposed site for a soccer stadium - across State Street from Miller's Jordan Commons entertainment complex at 9400 South.
Miller couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday. Dennis Haslam - who is negotiating with Salt Lake City as president of Larry H. Miller Sports - said he wasn't aware of any conversations with Sandy officials.
Last week, Haslam said the Stingers would have to relocate if Miller can't work out a deal at Franklin Covey. He quickly added, however, that Miller is "trying to make a deal with Salt Lake City. There is no plan to move the team somewhere else."
Dolan downplays his city's chances of snatching the Stingers. But he does envision finding room in his city for a Major League Baseball stadium. The Sandy mayor is discussing creating a sports district of more than 100 acres from State Street to Interstate 15 and 9000 South to 9400 South with room for an MLS stadium surrounded by practice soccer fields and space for another team.
"This was kind of a brainstorming thing," he said. "If Major League Baseball or football wanted to come to the community in the future, could we continue on this concept and create a site for those facilities?"
Such a sports complex would be attractive to Real Salt Lake. Surrounding youth soccer fields are common elements in other planned MLS stadiums - including Murray's targeted site - but are missing from Salt Lake City's proposal.
Sandy's soccer proposal has sapped Salt Lake City's momentum. While Mayor Rocky Anderson says that, like Sandy, he is pursuing financing options now that the city can't use Redevelopment Agency funds for stadiums, Salt Lake City Councilman Dave Buhler said: "The city could have come up with something creative and we have not so far."
Major League Baseball spokesman Patrick Courtney couldn't say if Utah is a viable market. But he noted that until this year - when Montreal's franchise moved to Washington, D.C. - a team hadn't relocated in 36 years and MLB isn't adding teams.
The Wasatch Front would be one of the big league's smallest markets. And the Stingers have struggled to attract fans.
Haslam concedes Utah isn't ready for big-time baseball. "It's something in the future our organization or somebody else may look at. I don't know if that's [in] 5 or 10 years."
That would be about the time Salt Lake City will pay off its $14 million-plus-interest tab for Franklin Covey. If MLB comes along, Haslam said, the Stingers would have to go.
"Why would you put a Little League team next to the Yankees?"
hmay@sltrib.com
