(Salt Lake City) Although MLB currently has no expansion plans, the family that once owned the Utah Jazz say they want to get a franchise.
The Miller family and the Larry H. Miller Company said Wednesday that a coalition, Big League Utah, has targeted a site for construction of a stadium in the Rocky Mountain Power District on the west side of Salt Lake City.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has repeatedly said he isn’t considering expansion until the stadiums for the Tampa Bay Rays and Oakland Athletics are settled, but he would like eventually add two clubs, for a total of 32, to Major League Baseball.
MLB’s last expansion was in 1998, when the Rays (then the Devil Rays) and Arizona Diamondbacks joined its ranks.
The Miller family bought shares of the Jazz in 1985, before selling the club in December 2020. Company CEO Larry H. Miller, Steve Starks, said in a statement that he “enjoyed discussions with MLB at the over the past year” and that the group “has formally stated its intention” to be considered for possible expansion.
Salt Lake City has had a AAA club since 1994, first affiliated with the Minnesota Twins and then the Los Angeles Angels since 2001.
Montreal, Las Vegas, Nashville and Portland, Oregon have also expressed possible interest in an MLB club, although Groupe Baseball Montreal’s interest in an expansion club seems to have faded. He hoped to welcome the Rays part-time, in a sister city project that will never see the light of day.
Salt Lake City is the 29th largest market, according to Nielson, with a catchment area of 1.15 million. Charlotte, North Carolina is 21st at 1.32 million; Portland is 22nd (1.29); Nashville 27th (1.7) and Las Vegas 40th, with 870,000 inhabitants.
After pulling stadium projects in Fremont and San Jose, the A’s announced in November 2018 that they had found a site at the Howard Terminal, near the Port of Oakland in the Jack London Square area. However, the city missed a key deadline last October to come to an agreement with the club on this 12 billion US project. The team is also exploring the possibility of moving to Las Vegas.
The Rays are hoping to build a new stadium near Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, but no funding for that project has yet been announced.
