How Salt Lake City stacks up against cities competing for an MLB team

Some have well-formed groups leading the effort, some don’t have an organized group. Charlotte’s is fan-driven on Facebook. Vancouver just entered the picture earlier this month. Others will come and go.

Brown, who was involved in a market study by baseball boosters and the mayor’s office in Portland two decades ago before becoming a reporter, used 10 data points to look at the cities, including population, television market, possible corporate sponsorships and the presence of other pro sports franchises.

What Salt Lake City has to offer

In Utah, Big League Utah, a coalition of prominent Utahns led by the Larry H. Miller Company, publicly launched its pursuit of a team three years ago.

Brown notes that the Miller family has played a foundational role in shaping professional sports in Utah with its longtime ownership of the Utah Jazz and Salt Lake Bees. The Millers sold the Jazz for $1.66 billion in 2020 but retained the Bees. Last year, it added Real Salt Lake and Utah Royals FC to its sports portfolio.

“This dynamic of the Miller Family, coupled with a deep stable of capital investors and government support up and down the political spectrum, makes Big League Utah the furthest along in terms of funding, site development, and the general partner framework that MLB can easily vet, given the Millers’ longstanding reputation within the NBA,” Brown wrote.

The Miller Company intends to invest $3.5 billion in a mixed-use development in the Power District on Salt Lake City’s west side. The 100-acre project minutes from the Salt Lake International Airport includes plans for green space and trails, a riverwalk, office buildings, residential housing, hotel, dining and retail. There’s also an MLB ballpark site, should the city land a team.

The stadium would be funded with private dollars, state sales tax revenue and rental car taxes paid for primarily by out-of-state visitors. The district would have the ability to raise the car rental 1.5% tax for construction of a baseball stadium only if MLB awards Utah a franchise, with a 2032 deadline for that to happen.

Steps in the MLB expansion process

Brown wrote that an agreement with the MLB Players Association would be key to expansion. The current collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1 and “it would seem that the next labor agreement for 2027 would be the first step toward a formal process.”

While the association doesn’t have a say in expansion, it speaks for impacts on players. “But conceptually, the union would be amenable to expansion, given that two additional teams would provide jobs for more players, not only on MLB rosters but also for affiliated minor league teams,” per Brown.

In addition to all the costs associated with a stadium, new teams would also have to pay an expansion fee, estimated at $2 billion to $2.5 billion, per Forbes.