COLUMN: Salt Lake City needs more professional sports teams
Salt Lake City is a metropolis of more than 1 million people and it’s only getting bigger. But the biggest complaint about it is that there’s nothing to do there.
Everyone just sits around and complains about how the Mormons (or non-Mormons) are ruining everything. Sure, it has a few dance clubs and some heavily regulated bars, but other than that, Salt Lake is only left with the Jazz.
This is kind of puzzling. Here you have all these people craving entertainment, the bars and clubs are a joke, and the only thing everyone can come together with is the only professional sports team in the state.
Ah, there’s the solution right there.
Utah needs more sports. None of this semi-pro hockey or arena football, but real professional teams. Salt Lake is more than capable of handling it.
We can start with the basics. The Delta Center could easily house a pro hockey team. In fact, most cities that have both a basketball and a hockey team have the two share an arena.
And especially with the exodus of Stockton and Malone, there’s not going to be a whole lot of basketball to watch in the near future, so we need something to watch in the winter.
A football team could also solve the winter blues. Everyone says Salt Lake will never have an NFL franchise because none of the Mormons will go to games on Sunday. Actually, more will go than will admit it, and it is hardly an issue, anyway, seeing how less than half of SLC is Mormon now.
Everyone here likes football. But what team do we have to cheer for? The Denver Broncos are the closest, but there is not much of a following here.
The Arizona Cardinals aren’t too far away either, but they can’t even get fans in their own city.
The Oakland Raiders? The San Francisco 49ers? They each have scattered fans across the state, but Salt Lake would be very welcoming to a new franchise.
But Utah would have to be most attractive to a major league baseball team. Salt Lake residents don’t have a lot to do over the summer. There are the mountains, but that kind of gets old to most people after awhile. The baseball season goes from late March to October. It overlaps the end of the NBA playoffs (which won’t affect Utah anytime soon) and runs into the first part of football season when the games don’t mean anything.
A baseball team will give Utah someone to cheer for all year long. Tickets are never as expensive as other sports because baseball teams have 81 home games a year. And nothing beats going to the ballpark on a cool summer evening, eating hot dogs and nachos and just enjoying the game and the atmosphere.
But with professional sports, we have the issue of marketing and economics. That shouldn’t be an issue with Utah.
Just look at all the die-hard fans the Jazz have. Even when they’re having a bad year, the Delta Center fills up for every game. And the BYU-Utah rivalry is one of the biggest in the country because of the fans.
Salt Lake would embrace any pro sports team that came its way.
The other issue with new sports franchises is the market, or region they’re placed in. But what pro hockey, football or baseball team will lose a large portion of fans because of Salt Lake getting a team. That’s right, no one. Denver is the only city that could possibly complain, and it’s an eight hour drive away.
Salt Lake City is capable and ready for another professional sports team to move in. It could give the people something to do and something to bring everyone together with. Who is going to care about the Mormons or non-Mormons when the football team is playing? And Utah’s sports hunger will finally be satisfied.
Bryan Hinton is a junior majoring in print journalism. Comments can be sent to bhhinton@cc.usu.edu.