Market Focus: Salt Lake City’s Big League Experiences Match Big League Aspirations

Home to the NBA’s Utah Jazz since 1979 and gaining Real Salt Lake of Major League Soccer in 2005, Salt Lake City has long been a major-league city, even hosting the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.

Now, after gaining an NHL expansion team last season, a baseball stadium on the eve of opening and hopes of landing a Major League Baseball team — not to mention hosting the Olympics again in 2034 — SLC appears sure to reach new heights as a sports and entertainment destination.

“We’re really excited for the ballpark. It’s going to be a state-of-the-art, minor league facility, with major league amenities,” said Dustin Dehlin, vice president of business development for Miller Sports + Entertainment, which owns the Salt Lake Bees, a Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels MLB team.

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The Ballpark at America First Square, opening in April as the home of the Salt Lake Bees, will serve as an entertainment anchor to the multibillion-dollar Daybreak Community mixed-use project in South Jordan, a rapidly growing suburb of Salt Lake City. At an intimate capacity of 6,500 fixed seats and space for an additional 1,500 in a grass berm space in right field, the team anticipates the stadium being sold out nightly.

The Bees move from the team’s downtown home at Smith’s Ballpark, but the new digs are easily accessible at about a 20-minute drive or public transit. Dehlin says many of the team’s fans already reside in and near South Jordan, which provides an atmosphere and views just as stunning as Salt Lake City proper.

“This is one of the fastest growing parts of the Salt Lake Valley, and we’re really excited to bring this venue to the people,” said Dehlin, whose experience also includes time at the Utah Jazz, which were also owned by the Miller family until recently. “We actually think the views are enhanced with where we’re at now. We’ll have a state-of-the-art, 6 million meter LED, massive video scoreboard for storytelling in game. It will feature unique and intentional club spaces, dining spaces, and we’ll also have very affordable family-friendly priced seats.”

Other features and signature design elements (with design firm HOK) include expansive player amenities and locker rooms, including open access areas and training facilities, gender-specific facilities for female umpires and coaches, and loge box seats and field suites. “You’re closer to the hitter than the pitcher is,” Dehlin says. “We’re excited to create an entertainment district that provides 365 activation, something for everyone all year long, from sports, concerts and comedy to holiday lights in the wintertime.”

While concerts and other one-off events are planned for the Ballpark at America First Square, an amphitheater venue is being constructed adjacent to the stadium, which will allow for ticketed concerts, community events and other activities, and will convert to an ice rink for the winter.

“We’ll have a space where we could place up to 4,000 people per standing room, and for seated shows, it’ll be just under 2,000,” Dehlin said, noting the company is working with Spec Seats and other suppliers to find seating solutions for multiple configurations. He said some talent is already lined up, and they have hired someone specifically to book and procure entertainment. “We’re still new to the process and getting our feet wet, and the amphitheater space won’t be ready until the May timeframe,” he added. “We open up our season on April 8 for our baseball, we’re kind of on that time crunch to get everything completed on the real estate side, bolting in chairs and getting it all ready to go. Then we’ll start leaning into some events, concerts and shows to test the venue in May, and then really ramp up for the summer months and the future.”

Getting into some of the nitty gritty, RevelTV, a technology supplier, has worked closely with the Bees on both the ballpark and amphitheater. With technology and amenities being built in more intentionally to new facilities, suppliers are able to optimize service and owners can save money.

“For The Bees, I was able to go in and value engineer it to make it so it what they actually needed and we are able to save them a lot of money from the get-go,” says Matt Dopp, co-founder and chief marketing officer at RevelTV, which provides IPTV, digital signage and other services for venues, retail and office properties. For the Bees, Revel is doing IPTV, ribbon boards, sound design and other services, including programming and servicing concessions signage, selfie stations and other activations.

“We’re looking at it from a long-term perspective, and putting in the hardware that we know is going to work, software that’s going to work and we’ll be by your side,” Dopp said, noting the company has also worked with the Utah Jazz and Delta Center, which is on deck for major renovations.

To top it all off, the Ballpark At America First Square in some ways may be a practice run or proof of concept for Salt Lake City’s — and the Miller Companies’ — long-dreamed goal: landing Major League Baseball.

“We are actually developing the Power District on the west side of Salt Lake City, and if we do secure a Major League Baseball team, that’s where we will build the stadium,” Dehlin said. The Power District, a 100-acre development, includes retail, residential and entertainment properties, with the Larry H. Miller Companies pledging $3.5 billion.

Although situated near the minor league Bees’ home turf, there is plenty of precedent for minor and major league teams being in close proximity, and successful.

“There are six other MLB teams that have their AAA affiliate in the same city or state not too far away,” Dehlin said. “It allows you to rehab players up and down. If we’re able to capture an expansion team or lure a team here, we would work to change our Bees team to be an affiliate of that team. That would be the goal.”

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has said that an expansion team is off the table until the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays stadium situations have been resolved, but Utah has proven creative in bringing sports to town. A case in point is the Utah Hockey Club, an expansion team that involved a $1.2 billion deal between the NHL and the Utah Jazz to acquire the former Phoenix Coyotes’ roster, staff and draft picks.

Expansion And Innovation: Venues Move To Meet Growth

Salt Lake City has been growing in recent years, making conditions ripe for increased event activity, and venues eager to do their part in that equation.

As one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, Salt Lake City’s population grew 10.5% from 2010 to 2020, according to Census figures. With a metro population now at more than 1.2 million, the city’s median household income has grown significantly, with a 9.83% increase to $72,357 from 2021 to 2022, according to Data USA.

“The economy is so strong and has remained strong,” says Kevin Bruder, general manager of the Maverik Center in West Valley City, Utah. That’s the 12,500-capacity home of ECHL Utah Grizzlies and Salt Lake City Stars G-League basketball team. Bruder says concerts in particular are booming in Salt Lake City, and Maverik Center specifically. “When you look at some of the shows that we had over the last two years, the frequency, the number and even the gross potential on these shows has definitely been booming,” adds Bruder, who has been at the arena since it opened in 1997.

Growing along with the city, Bruder says offering more and different kinds of events has done a lot to serve the audience. “We ended up with ’24 being just a wonderful year for us and a huge part of it was the Latin and Hispanic genres. We’ve had it here for some time but not to this level of success.” Recent shows included Los Tigres del Norte, Grupo Frontera, Gloria Trevi, Los Temerarios, Ramon Ayala y Sus Bravos Del Norte and still more.

But the varied entertainment includes genres of all types, with metal shows by Megadeth and the Tool-related Sessanta also stopping by in 2024, along with hip-hop shows like 50 Cent and the red-hot Benson Boone, who played in April as he began blowing up into a touring force.

“We’ve continued to perform well in the shows we have done, which continues to bode well for the future,” said Bruder, which allows the arena to stay in the conversation when tours are looking to play the market and other growing nearby regions like Las Vegas and Boise. He says the venue’s tight fit of its lower bowl, which can be utilized as a theater configuration, allows artists to perform to a full house but keep an intimate environment. “Obviously, there’s a lot of shows that want to play one of the bigger venues or outdoors, but we’re a great fit for all shows and it’s just fun to continue to be in the dialog and see all forms of entertainment do so well in our market.”

Looking ahead, Bruder, who managed the arena during the 2002 Olympics when it hosted events including ice skating, says front-of-house renovations are on the horizon sometime in the next few years. It sounds like a long time from now, but 2034 could have a way of sneaking up on us.

“The 2002 Games were unbelievable,” said Bruder. “I never thought I’d potentially get a chance for two Olympic games, so we’re on slate as a hopeful 2034 Olympic venue as well.”