A group from Salt Lake City wants to form a team

(Salt Lake City) While Major League Baseball has no expansion plans yet, the family that once owned the Utah Jazz says it wants a franchise.

The Miller family and the Larry H. Miller Company said Wednesday that a coalition, the Big League Utah, is targeting a stadium building site in the Rocky Mountain Power District on Salt Lake City’s west side.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has repeatedly said he is not considering expansion until the Tampa Bay Rays and Oakland Athletics stadiums are resolved, but he would like to add two clubs, for a total of 32, to Major League Baseball. .

The last MLB expansion was in 1998 when the Rays (then Devil Rays) and Arizona Diamondbacks joined its ranks.

The Miller family purchased Jazz stock in 1985, before selling the club in December 2020. Company CEO Larry H. Miller Steve Starks said in a statement that he “enjoyed discussions with MLB over the past year” and that the group “formally stated its intention” to be considered for possible expansion.

Salt Lake City has had a AAA club since 1994, first affiliated with the Minnesota Twins and then the Los Angeles Angels since 2001.

Montreal, Las Vegas, Nashville and Portland, Oregon have also expressed possible interest in an MLB club, although Groupe Baseball Montreal’s interest in an expansion club appears to have waned. He was hoping to welcome the Rays part-time to a sister city project that will never see the light of day.

Salt Lake City is the 29th^{It is} largest market, according to Nielson, with a catchment area of ​​1.15 million inhabitants. Charlotte, North Carolina is 21 years old^{It is} at 1.32 million; Portland is 22 years old^{It is} (1.29); Nashville 27^{It is} (1.7) and Vegas 40^{It is}for 870,000 inhabitants.

After pulling stadium designs in Fremont and San Jose, the A’s announced in November 2018 that they had found a site at Terminal Howard, near the Port of Oakland in the Jack London Square area. However, the city missed a key deadline last October to reach an agreement with the club on this $12 billion project. The team is also exploring the possibility of moving to Las Vegas.

The Rays hope to build a new stadium near Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, but no funding for that project has yet been announced.