Question: How hungry are you for Major League Baseball in Salt Lake City? Do you really want it? Really, really, really want it?
OK. Prove it.
You might be able to do exactly that in the strangest of ways — by supporting another city’s team, another city’s team on its way to yet another city. Answer that call with proper enthusiasm and it could grease the skids en route to Salt Lake landing an MLB team of its own, of your own.
It’s like this: The Oakland Athletics need a place to play until their newly proposed park in Las Vegas is up and running. That won’t happen for a minimum of four years, necessitating for the A’s a suitable place to play after their time in the Bay Area is done following the 2024 season.
After that, they need a home, a borrowed, temporary one.
The A’s hit up the folks in Sacramento earlier this week, who can offer a Triple-A stadium there, and they followed that up with a visit with Gail and Greg Miller, among other LHM bigwigs, on Thursday.
It appears the Athletics are seriously interested in squatting for a time at the new ballpark being constructed for the Bees in Downtown Daybreak. Those digs would be more suitable for them, rather than Smith’s Ballpark at West Temple and 13th South, the familiar stadium where the Bees have been for many seasons.
If it turns out that the A’s end up in Daybreak, at the stadium that will be ready to inhabit in the 2025 season, the Bees would remain right where they have been, at Smith’s Ballpark.
Were that to actually happen, it would be good news for Big League Utah, the coalition working to eventually bring an MLB team of its own to Salt Lake City.
Everyone around here is well aware of what Big League Utah is doing to enhance Salt Lake City’s chances of getting an MLB team here in the years ahead, as commissioner Rob Manfred seeks two expansion locations at some point in the not-too-distant future.
That coalition, led by the Miller family and backed by local government officials, has a place picked out and plans designed and formulated for a new, state-of-the-art MLB stadium in the Power District on Salt Lake City’s west side. In addition, there are plans for large-scale development of hotels, retail stores, housing and other businesses along the Jordan River.
They’ve been in regular communication with MLB officials, eagerly anticipating expansion and preparing for it.
Now, it also might have a shot at demonstrating firsthand for baseball owners, the ones who vote on where to award future Major League franchises, how bonkers for baseball Utah is.
If the Athletics come to Utah for a few seasons, and, you, the fans of Utah, show support for them, that further bolsters Big League Utah’s chances of securing the MLB team they want.
After all, if fans here, you, can support a team that’s been as bad as the A’s have been in recent seasons, and as bad as they’re likely to be in the seasons ahead, they, you, also could absorb and withstand and support the initial seasons of an expansion team of their own. Typically, expansion teams replicate what the Athletics have done of late — lose, lose a lot.
Steve Starks, who heads up BLU, and who is the CEO of LHM, issued this statement on Friday:
“The Larry H. Miller Company is in regular contact with the Athletics. We hosted team officials on Thursday, and demonstrated we can accommodate their ballpark needs. Our organization and the state are excited and able to welcome the Athletics until their new stadium in Las Vegas is completed.
“In addition to Smith’s Ballpark, we will have a new ballpark opening in 2025 in Downtown Daybreak, South Jordan, anchoring a sports and entertainment district that features first-class player and fan amenities. This new ballpark will support the A’s’ needs and has been the focus of their interest. It will include breathtaking views of the field and the Wasatch Mountains, is easily accessible from Mountain View Corridor and TRAX, and is in the fastest-growing part of Salt Lake County. Our unique, two-stadium solution would ensure that baseball stays in the Salt Lake market as the Salt Lake Bees return to Smith’s Ballpark for additional seasons.”
It might seem like a sign of desperation for fans in Utah to jump behind the cause of a Major League Basbeall team previously in Oakland and headed for Vegas, but … desperate times call for desperate measures.
How hungry are you for Major League Baseball in Salt Lake City? Do you really want it? Really, really, really want it?
You are hungry. You do want it.
Go A’s. Go, go, go A’s.