{"id":807673,"date":"2026-09-17T22:42:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T22:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/807673\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T22:42:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T22:42:25","slug":"what-pro-sports-teams-are-in-salt-lake-city-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/807673\/","title":{"rendered":"What pro sports teams are in Salt Lake City? \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Salt Lake City continues to be a leading contender to land a Major League Baseball expansion franchise.<\/p>\n

ESPN<\/a> baseball insider Jeff Passan recently noted the Utah capital has by far the most advanced potential bid and is the closest scenario to a turnkey operation. Despite a smaller media market than its main competitors, he noted the city has three other significant factors going for it: a strong ownership group, locked-in stadium funding and a site to build the stadium.<\/p>\n

And if Utahns had their druthers, they would take a big league baseball team over any other pro sport, including football. <\/p>\n

\"\"Fans watch a play unfold during a Minor League Baseball game between the Salt Lake Bees and the Albuquerque Isotopes held at The Ballpark at America First Square in South Jordan on Tuesday, July 22, 2025. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News <\/p>\n

A new Deseret News\/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll found 43% of registered voters in the state would most like to see MLB join the state\u2019s pro sports landscape, followed by the NFL at 35%. The state is already home to two of the country\u2019s Big Four sports leagues with the NBA\u2019s Utah Jazz and NHL\u2019s Utah Mammoth.<\/p>\n

The survey found a significant drop-off after that with the WNBA at 14%; NASCAR or a motorsports event at 13% and an additional college bowl or playoff game at 12%. Nearly one-fifth don\u2019t want to see any of those sports in Utah. Poll respondents were asked to select up to two choices.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Larry H. Miller Company and Miller family unveiled renderings for the Power District, a nearly 100-acre site adjacent to the Utah State Fairpark and the Jordan River, Feb. 15, 2024. Here is an aerial view of the Power District looking southeast. | Larry H. Miller Company <\/p>\n

A coalition of prominent Utahns led by the Larry H. Miller Company<\/a> launched Big League Utah in 2023 to pitch Salt Lake City as a place for baseball. The company has a shovel-ready stadium site on the city\u2019s west side and a $900 million commitment from the state through a rental car tax increase to fund half the construction cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor generations, Utahns have embraced baseball \u2014 cheering on the Salt Lake Bees at home and traveling to iconic ballparks to see their favorite major league teams. We are energized by the national buzz and local excitement for MLB. This enthusiasm is more evidence that Utah is ready for a home game,\u201d Miller Company CEO Steve Starks told the Deseret News in a statement.<\/p>\n

\"\"Paul Najar, of Sandy, tries on a Salt Lake Bees hat before the Bees\u2019 inaugural home opener against the Reno Aces held at their new home at The Ballpark at America First Square in South Jordan on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News <\/p>\n

The new survey found more than half of baby boomers and nearly half of millennials would most like to see major league baseball in Salt Lake City. Only a third of Gen Xers and Gen Zers prefer pro baseball. Retired folks were higher on baseball than any other demographic in the survey at 57%.<\/p>\n

A March 2026 Deseret News\/Hinckley Institute poll<\/a> showed nearly 7 in 10 Utahns would welcome a big league team to the Beehive State.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Perhaps because of the work being done to get an expansion team, baseball turned the tables on football in the latest Deseret News\/Hinckley Institute poll. In a 2023 survey<\/a>, the NFL edged out MLB as the pro sport Utahns most wanted to see. Interestingly, the NHL finished a distant third in that poll taken the year before what is now the Mammoth arrived.<\/p>\n

Could Salt Lake City support an NFL team?<\/p>\n

Salt Lake City checks several boxes \u2014 growth trajectory, fan passion, location and increasingly sophisticated sports infrastructure. But it falls short on the two things the NFL highly values: a deep corporate base to fill luxury revenue and a credible path to a 65,000-seat stadium. <\/p>\n

A pro football team in Utah has been a pie-in-the-sky idea going back several decades. Unlike baseball, there has been no organized campaign to bring the NFL to town. <\/p>\n

\"\"A general overall view of the interior of Allegiant Stadium as the Las Vegas Raiders play against the Miami Dolphins in an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Las Vegas. | Jeff Lewis, Associated Press <\/p>\n

In 2005, now-retired Deseret New columnist Brad Rock wrote<\/a> about Brownsville, Texas, posturing for an NFL team. He noted that a story in the Brownsville Herald named Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, San Antonio, Toronto and Los Angeles as other possible sites. (Los Angeles now has the Rams and Chargers but didn\u2019t have an NFL team at the time.)<\/p>\n

A decade later, amid talk of moving the Utah State Prison from the Point of Mountain, former 2002 Salt Lake Olympics bid leader Tom Welch suggested replacing it with an NFL and\/or MLB stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, when I think of Seattle I think about their football team. When I think about Denver, I think about the Broncos. When I think about Phoenix, it\u2019s the Cardinals. And I think about their baseball teams. These are the major cities we compete against in attracting new businesses to Utah. They all have professional football and baseball. We don\u2019t. And, you know, we ought to be looking for major league football and baseball to be a part of our future,\u201d he told Deseret News columnist Lee Benson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2021, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox went all in<\/a> on the notion of pro football in the state. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if there\u2019s a limit on how hard I would push to get an NFL team here in Utah,\u201d Cox said in response to a question about the league during a news conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know a lot of people are excited to have the Raiders in Vegas. We\u2019ve been working closely with the Raiders to help them expand and do more with Utah, so there\u2019s a natural connection there,\u201d the governor said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Las Vegas Raiders Kirk Cousins (8) runs off the field after an NFL football game against the Miami Dolphins, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Las Vegas. | David Becker, Associated Press <\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s an opportunity for an NFL franchise here in the state of Utah, we would be all over that,\u201d Cox said. \u201cWe are the state of sport.\u201d <\/p>\n

And just last year, Touchdown Wire<\/a> ranked Salt Lake City third behind St. Louis and Toronto among five cities that \u201cdeserve the NFL\u2019s next expansion team.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the new poll, nearly half of Gen Zers want to see an NFL team in Utah, while less than a quarter of baby boomers expressed a desire for pro football.<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s basketball, auto racing and bowl games\"\"Utah Starzz Wendy Palmer calls for another teammate to get into the huddle after the Mercury beat the Starzz in the final season game Monday night, August 17, 1998. | Chuck Wing, Deseret News <\/p>\n

Utahns over the years have experienced some of the other sports listed in the survey.<\/p>\n

Salt Lake City was home to one of the eight original WNBA franchises. The Utah Starzz played at the Delta Center from 1997 to 2002. The team had a losing record in its first three seasons, but made the playoffs its last two years, reaching the Western Conference Finals in 2002.<\/p>\n

Larry H. Miller sold the club and it moved to San Antonio ahead of the 2003 season. It relocated to Las Vegas in 2018.<\/p>\n

Utah has never hosted a NASCAR Cup Series race but has had a presence with lower-tier regional and developmental series races. <\/p>\n

\"\"Adrian Carrio leads the Formula Mazda Race Saturday at Miller Motorsports\u00a0Park July 15, 2006. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News <\/p>\n

The Utah Motorsports Campus, originally the Miller Motorsports Park, is scheduled to reopen the racetrack after $5 million in upgrades Friday under a new brand. It will introduce plans for a multi-million-dollar project designed to position the 511-acre campus as a destination for motorsports, racing, high-performance innovation and entertainment.<\/p>\n

As for a college football bowl game, the state was home to the Top of Mountains Bowl featuring junior college teams, often Snow College, for eight years, ending in 2011. <\/p>\n

In 2008, an proposal to create the Rocky Mountain Bowl at the University of Utah\u2019s Rice-Eccles Stadium had local support and Mountain West Conference backing but didn\u2019t gain enough traction to get off the ground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Salt Lake City continues to be a leading contender to land a Major League Baseball expansion franchise. ESPN…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,4,26632,7557],"class_list":["post-807673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-news-division","tag-news-feed-national"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117288799543328156","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}