Salt Lake City: Official Development News Thread - Part 4

[Future Mayor]

Another aspect to consider is our geographical location. Denver, whether right or wrong, looks at Utah as an extension of their market, and to some extent that is true. There is a huge number of Denver Bronco's fans here, simply due to proximity. The Bronco organization will continually fight to protect their turf. I am sure there are a good number of Rockies fans in Utah as well, again simply based on proximity.

Spence Eccles did a very extensive interview on 1280 the Zone in December and he had some interesting opinions on a new franchise. He is obviously a huge supporter or Utah Football, and played a key role in Larry Miller getting the financing to purchase the Jazz from Sam Battinstone in the 1980's in order to keep it in Utah.

To sum up the interview, while he thinks it would be exciting to have another pro level team in Utah, and the residents obviously show a passion for sports and support the teams we do have. He expressed a concern that there is still a limited number of people in the state and fears that a new team could dilute the support for the existing sports, ie, college, NBA, and MLS.

As you have pointed out several key wealthy individuals, set on bringing a team to Utah is crucial, but the corporate sponsorship dollars to pay salaries can only go so far. Eccles worried that another team could make it more difficult for the existing teams to maintain their sponsorship's and making it more difficult for them to be prosperous.

He also pointed out that the beauty of having the Bees as a Triple A affiliate is the the players salaries aren't dependent on the local sponsorship dollars, because all salaries are paid by the parent club. So we get quality baseball without the burden of those salaries.

While I too would love to see another pro level team, NFL, or MLB come to Salt Lake City, I think for a city and metro our size we are pretty spoiled with the level of sports that we have; 2 maybe 1 1/2 P-5 level College football teams, NBA, MLS, Triple A baseball, and minor league Hockey. Two of those are the from the top leagues in the country, and one just a step down.