Quote:
Originally Posted by ryerop
https://www.abc4.com/news/wasatch-fr...-stadium-site/
In this article its talking about how they are trying to get some community input on the future of the ballpark site. I like the idea that they are actively trying to at least get the public input on this. There are cash incentives for the people that have the best ideas for the property. Hopefully this will work how it's supposed to and get some creative ideas going that will be a boost that's desperately needed for that area of the city. Hopefully it doesn't turn into another point of the mountain situation where the development company with the deepest pockets wins out over what is actually best for the city. Crossing fingers that they can put something awesome there, and build on the development happening right up the road at the old sears site where the hospital is going, as well as so many other areas of the city 
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Something awesome there already exists.
We've had one of the nicest, and largest, Minor League ballparks in the country - one that was replicated multiple times by other franchises, and it's about to become part of the dustbin of history.
I am sad. I am sad as a life-long Salt Laker who was always proud of that ballpark and the role it played in a struggling community. I am frustrated the Millers have been on this course ever since Larry bought the team in 2005 and that there was nothing that could have saved this move.
The Bees have been trash since Miller bought 'em and yet still received a strong level of support. They generally finish toward the bottom of their division but almost always toward the top of the PCL in attendance (last season, they were 4th in the PCL - despite a losing campaign). They haven't made the playoffs in ten years.
But they've been itching to move the team since 2005. And now they can build their own stadium in their own planned community they own.
What's sad is that while I know the Miller Family owes nothing to Salt Lake, they've absolutely been absent in doing anything to either renovate downtown when they owned the Jazz and Delta Center - or the area around the ballpark. Granted, they didn't own the ballpark but not once did they ever partner with the city to work to make that neighborhood more than it ever has been. Ironically, the city has invested a great deal there and it's now just starting to pay off with some strong development - only for this to happen...ripping away an anchor that has fueled the area for 100+ years.
But I'm not surprised. It was similar downtown. The Millers received a really nice tax break to build the Delta Center in Salt Lake, an arena they owned and made a lot of money on, and yet did absolutely nothing to help develop the area around the arena.
It was the federal government funding the cleanup of the Brownfield area west of the arena, the relocation of the railyard and the creation of the Gateway, ten years after the Delta Center opened, that really brought life to that part of downtown.
Prior to the Gateway, the western-edge of downtown was pathetic, even in the years after the Delta Center opened.
Yet we'll happily call the Millers stewards of the community. I don't see it - not the Salt Lake community. They've worked to abandon the city at every turn - whether it was when they bought the Golden Eagles in the early 90s and sold 'em off to Detroit, relocated their corporate offices out of downtown and now taking Salt Lake's baseball team out to the south-end of the valley.
Frankly, I'm glad they sold the Jazz because I think they would have relocated the Jazz out that way if they could have.
I'm sad the ballpark is likely going to be demolished. You're not going to find a finer minor league ballpark.
And the kicker? I bet the one they do build out in Daybreak will be at least 4,000 seats fewer than Smith's.
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