MLB expansion: Former Utah Jazz owner wants to put major league baseball team in Salt Lake City

A group led by Gail Miller, former owner of the NBA’s Utah Jazz, intends to pursue a Major League Baseball franchise in Salt Lake City, Utah, reports ESPN. The group, Big League Utah, joins Nashville’s Music City Baseball and the Portland’s Diamond Project in seeking an MLB expansion franchise. Las Vegas, another expansion possibility, may get the relocated Oakland Athletics.

Here are more details from ESPN:

The Salt Lake City coalition includes the Larry H. Miller Company — the conglomerate founded by Miller’s late husband, Larry, an automobile magnate — as well as local business leaders and former major league players Dale Murphy and Jeremy Guthrie, both Utah residents. The group has targeted building a stadium in the Rocky Mountain Power District, a 100-acre mixed-use zone located between Salt Lake City’s new airport and its downtown core, an investment that would come on top of an expected $2 billion expansion fee.

“Salt Lake City is a major league city,” said Steve Starks, CEO of the Miller Company. “We believe that as a top-30 media market in the fastest-growing state in the country with the youngest population, that’s where our attention should be — and that we could accomplish bringing a team to the Wasatch Front.”

Last summer, MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark said the union is hopeful MLB could expand to 32 teams in the near future. Back in 2018, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said the sameechoing the hope for 32 teams at some point. Manfred has said the A’s and Tampa Bay Rays need new stadiums before MLB expands, however.

At some point, MLB will almost certainly expand to 32 teams, maybe in five years or maybe in 50 years. When it does happen, the league is likely to shift to four four-team divisions per league. There would be significant realignment as well as an expansion draft, plus hundreds of millions of dollars (if not billions) for the league and the 30 current teams in expansion fees.

The Jazz are Utah’s only franchise in the four major North American sports. The Salt Lake Bees, Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angelsplay in the city and are getting a new stadium built by Miller’s company in 2025.