Opinion: Pac-12 Headquarters Should Be Moved To Salt Lake City

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – It is widely reported of how much money the Pac-12 spends in expenses each year. A simple solution for the Conference to save money is move their headquarters to Salt Lake City.

Right now, the conference is losing a lot of money because they are not in competition due to the coronavirus pandemic. It’s even worse when they are paying way more than needed for office space that isn’t being fully used at this point.

Here are some reasons why the Pac-12 should move their headquarters from San Francisco, California to Salt Lake City, Utah.

Rent Is Cheaper

San Francisco is one of the most expensive real estate footprints, period. According to John Canzano of the Oregonian, Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott had two options to put the conference headquarters. Those two options included Oakland or San Francisco. Obviously, Scott chose San Francisco.

The conference signed an 11-year lease with Kilroy Realty Corporation to secure two floors and included 113,000 square feet of office space in downtown San Francisco. Last year, the Pac-12 paid $6.9 million in rent and another $11.7 million in deferred rent.

Canzano pointed out that the Big Ten headquarters in Chicago will cost the conference less than $1.5 million this year. The SEC headquarters is in Birmingham, Alabama and pay $1 million annually in rent.

The @pac12 football working group had a call on Thursday. According to @YahooSports, the majority of the programs can be ready for a season in six weeks or less if they start preparation on Monday.#GoUtes #Pac12 https://t.co/4SEMSbICOn

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) September 17, 2020

In 2018, Salt Lake City released their commercial real estate benchmark. The office market at that time listed the average Direct Asking Rate per square foot at $23.19. Over 2.32 million square feet was available for lease in 2018. Let’s say that the Pac-12 is looking at a spot to move their headquarters to in Salt Lake City with the average Direct Asking Rate at $23.19. The conference would pay just over $2.6 million per year in rent in Salt Lake City for a 113,000 square foot space. That is saving the Pac-12 $4.3 million and that is in Salt Lake City. The conference could look at areas just outside of downtown.

I know those numbers are from 2018 but even if it increased over the last two years, rent won’t be nearly as much in Utah as it is in San Francisco.

The Conference’s revenue increased seven percent in total revenue during the 2018-19 fiscal year, making $530 million. Each school in the conference received an average distribution of $32.2 million.

Doesn’t Need To Be In Expensive City

Back on August 26, I did some research on where each FBS conference currently resides.

• AAC & Big 12: Irving, Texas
• ACC: Greensboro, North Carolina
• Big Ten: Rosemont, Illinois
• Conference USA: Dallas, Texas
• MAC: Cleveland, Ohio
• Mountain West: Colorado Springs, Colorado
• SEC: Birmingham, Alabama
• Sun Belt: New Orleans, Louisiana

It’s also worth noting that the Big Sky headquarters are in Ogden, Utah.

Other conference headquarter locations:

AAC & Big 12: Irving, TX
ACC: Greensboro, NC
Big Ten: Rosemont, IL
C-USA: Dallas, TX
MAC: Cleveland, OH
MWC: Colorado Springs, CO
SEC: Birmingham, AL
Sun Belt: New Orleans, LA

The Pac-12 has no reason to be in SF.@kslsports

— Trevor Allen (@TrevorASports) August 26, 2020

As most of you know, Salt Lake City is a great place to live.

Trevor Allen is a Utah Utes Insider for KSLSports.com and host of the Crimson Corner podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @TrevorASports. You can download and listen to the podcast, here.