Salt Lake City’s west side could be home to two professional stadiums — not just one Major League Baseball park – if lawmakers embrace a bill introduced this week on Capitol Hill.
Tremonton Republican Sen. Scott Sandall, who chairs the Utah Fairpark Area Investment and Restoration District Board, introduced SB336 on Tuesday, seeking to reduce the necessary capacity for stadium projects within the Fairpark neighborhood district from 30,000 spectators to 18,000 people, remove provisions that would’ve restricted stadium use to an MLB team, and require any additional fields that are built to host a major league sports team.
The bill passed out of the Senate Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee by a 2-1 vote. Sen. Karen Kwan and Sen. Ann Millner voted in favor, while Sen. John Johnson voted against.
“There’s no existing or pending plans that I’m aware of on multiple stadiums,” Sandall said when asked why he introduced the bill, “but just wanted to be proactive, just for the future.”
The deal keeps many of the provisions that are required for a potential MLB team in Utah — for example, lease payments and the stipulation that the team must be named “Utah” — but does not keep those stipulations for a smaller stadium or team that may move to the fairpark.
The bill also notably advances the date in which the state will begin to collect a 1.5% tax on rental cars to Oct. 1, 2025. Originally, that tax was slated to be collected only once MLB agreed to place a baseball team in Salt Lake City. The tax was previously limited to only car rentals of 30 days or fewer, but that provision would be removed under SB336. The bill allows that tax to be used to create parking structures, lighting, plazas, or open space associated with a qualified stadium.
Sandall, who presented the bill to the senate committee, said that revenue from the district’s incremental property may be used to create “its own police force, which may be used to clean up, to invest in the Jordan River.”
The provisions allowing multiple stadiums are a new addition to the so-called Power District development being pursued by the Larry H. Miller Co. along North Temple, near Redwood Road. That project and the wider Fairpark district it occupies have caused significant headaches for Salt Lake City leaders as they’ve navigated negotiations with the company over what the west-side neighborhood will eventually look like.
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State legislators signed off on the MLB ballpark and the state district tasked with overseeing its development last year, paving the way for $900 million in public funding to eventually flow to the future stadium.
SB336’s language would allow the district to finance more than one “qualified stadium” — basically venues that host a major league team and can hold at least 18,000 spectators.
An MLB outfit and ballpark remains a key fixture in LHM’s plans for the district. The Ryan Smith-owned Utah Jazz and Utah Hockey Club already have a deal in place for $900 million to go to the renovation of Delta Center and an associated downtown sports district.
If legislators hoped to lure a National Football League team to the west side, the 18,000-spectator minimum likely would’ve been an unnecessary change to the district’s bylaws. College sports teams, meanwhile, would be excluded from building stadiums in the neighborhood under the bill.
Major League Rugby’s Utah Warriors and the Premier Lacrosse League’s Utah Archers play at 5,000-seat Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman.
That leaves Utah’s two professional soccer teams, Major League Soccer’s Real Salt Lake and the National Women’s Soccer League’s Utah Royals, who play at 16-year-old, 20,000-seat America First Field in Sandy as two possible tenants of a second stadium. Sports investor David Biltzer and Ryan Smith own the teams.
Before Real Salt Lake and ex-owner Dave Checketts got a deal over the line in 2007 to build the suburban stadium, state legislators, county officials and Salt Lake City leaders were also considering placing the budding soccer club at the Utah State Fairpark.
An RSL spokesperson said he couldn’t speak for team ownership.
Sandall’s bill would also let the Fairpark district’s board levy property taxes within the district’s boundaries and broaden the Fairpark’s ability to lease its land.
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