Brice Wallace
Utah has whiffed at trying to land a Major League Baseball team but hopes to succeed in a later at-bat.
The Oakland Athletics have opted to play in West Sacramento for a few years as the team awaits construction of a permanent home in Las Vegas, leaving Salt Lake City at least temporarily empty-handed in its attempt to become an MLB city.
Utah officials had hoped to secure the A’s during that interim period — and perhaps auditioned to keep the A’s had the team run into trouble with its Las Vegas plans — but now must hope to someday get an expansion MLB team. Salt Lake City is viewed by experts as a frontrunner to land a team, along with Nashville.
The A’s would have played at a new Triple A, 7,500-seat stadium being built in the Downtown Daybreak development in South Jordan. The Salt Lake Bees will move to that stadium next spring. The Bees would have continued to play at Smith’s Ballpark in Salt Lake City had the A’s moved to a temporary home in South Jordan.
After the A’s announced their move to temporary digs in the Sacramento area starting in the 2025 season, the Larry H. Miller Co., developer of Downtown Daybreak, issued a statement expressing gratitude to MLB and the A’s for approaching the company about possibly hosting the A’s temporarily in South Jordan.
“From the beginning, there were economic reasons tied to an existing television contract that favored the Athletics staying in Northern California,” the company said. “We wish the Athletics much success in their home state during this exciting time in their team history.”
The company said its ownership group and the Big League Utah coalition “is fully committed to bringing an MLB expansion team to the Power District on Salt Lake City’s west side. We are grateful and encouraged that Utah was viewed as a potential host and solution for the Athletics, and we will continue to demonstrate that we are the ideal MLB expansion market.”
The team has played at the Oakland Coliseum since 1968 but its lease there expires after the current season and an extension did not materialize. The new stadium in Las Vegas is not expected to be ready until at least 2028. Starting next year, the team will play at Sutter Health Park, a 14,000-capacity stadium that currently is home to the Sacramento River Cats, a San Francisco Giants farm team. The Athletics’ agreement with the city of West Sacramento is for the 2025-27 seasons, with an option for 2028. The River Cats will continue to play at the stadium.
Meanwhile, a futuristic stadium will emerge in Las Vegas, complete with overlapping roof panels and a cable-net glass window offering a view of The Strip. The Tropicana hotel has closed and will be demolished to make way for the $1.5 billion, 33,000-seat stadium.
In an informal poll during spring training, several Athletics players had expressed a preference to stay at the Oakland Coliseum until the Las Vegas stadium is ready, the thinking being that they wanted to remain in a Major League Baseball stadium rather than a minor-league facility. Others said they did not care, as long as they were on a big-league team. Since the announcement about the West Sacramento move, some players have expressed hope that team clubhouses and other amenities at Sutter Health Park can be brought up to MLB standards.
Downtown Daybreak will occupy nearly 200 acres of the 4,100-acre Daybreak master-planned community and include an entertainment district, offices, residences, restaurants, a performance venue, a Megaplex cinema-entertainment center and the minor-league ballpark.
The future use of the Smith’s Ballpark site has yet to be determined.
The Utah Legislature passed a pair of bills this year establishing a framework for a new MLB stadium and a new arena for Salt Lake City. They call for the creation of a new Utah Fairpark Area Investment Restoration District to help advance the redevelopment planned for the Fairpark neighborhood and pending Power District. It also provides up to $900 million in state money for a possible MLB stadium. One bill creates a so-called Capital City Revitalization Zone that could someday be home to the Utah Jazz and a potential National Hockey League team, perhaps in the same arena.