Could Salt Lake Share An MLB Team With Another City?
Jun 20, 2019, 12:44 PM | Updated: 12:52 pm
Smith's Ballpark (Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)
(Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Tampa Bay Rays are exploring a potentially new trend in Major League Baseball by splitting their season and playing in two cities throughout the regular season. Could this idea work for the state of Utah?
ESPN has reported that the Rays will play the early-season home games in Tampa Bay and play the back-half of their games in Montreal.
That bodes the question here in the state of Utah with just an NBA and MLS team on the professional level, would fans in the state like to share a season with another city?
BREAKING: The Tampa Bay Rays have received MLB's permission to explore becoming two-city team: the Tampa Bay area and Montreal, sources tell ESPN. The plan: Play early-season home games in the Tampa Bay area and finish the season in Montreal. News at ESPN: https://t.co/X6uSt4KLfC
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 20, 2019
Baseball
That would be the logical option to have an MLB team split between Salt Lake City and another city. The Salt Lake Bees are the AAA affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels and have one of the most beautiful views in baseball at Smith’s Ballpark. There isn’t a lot things that are better in the hot summer months than to take the family to the ballpark and watch a baseball game.
Smith’s Ballpark can have 14,511 fans.
Would Major League Baseball draw more fans to games in Utah? That’s the big question and one that would be answered by doing what the Rays are doing.
Football
That will be the first thing that most of the fans in the state will want is an NFL team to play four games in Utah at Rice Eccles or LaVell Edwards Stadium.
Fans flirted with idea of hosting the Raiders for one season because their lease in Oakland was up and their Las Vegas Stadium won’t be completed until 2020.
MORE:
KSL’s Unrivaled: Raiders Should Move To Salt Lake For 2019 Season
Raiders Show ‘Interest’ In Playing In San Francisco In 2019
NFL Team Visits Would Highlight A Raiders’ Temporary Move To Utah
There isn’t any doubt that fans in the Beehive state will have a hard time attending NFL games because of the consistent support for college football, it’s a matter of a team wanting to come here and see for themselves.
The big issue is that the NFL is well attended and there are only 8 home games, teams would never want to split with another city. One can dream though, right?
