Salt Lake NHL and MLB News Thread

[SLCHenry]

My hope is they do something with the 400s Parking Lot.

[Atlas]

Now that this is looking like a real possibility, I'd love to see something like the ICE District in Edmonton. Not only did they get an "entertainment district" next to a new arena, they built some huge new towers. Imagine this on and around the Newhouse Block:





I also love this Libeskind-designed arena development (Nokia Arena) in Tampere, Finland:

[Comrade]

Remember this from a few weeks ago?



Maybe the arena can be built there?

[mattreedah]

Originally Posted by Comrade

Remember this from a few weeks ago?



Maybe the arena can be built there?

That’s where I’d put it. RDA land they’ve been trying to develop for a decade and can’t.

[N830MH]

Originally Posted by Makid

I would love something like that. For the area around it though, I don't see that happening at the current Delta Center site as it would require either demolishing portions of the Gateway, or the Triad Center (I am okay with this), the Paperbox project and the buildings directly north, or the western section of the Salt Palace.

I can't wait for more renderings and a proposed site plan. If everything goes well in the Legislature, we may find out more about this in the next few months.

It will be interesting to see what happens. I’ll believe it when I see it!! We shall see what happens.

[Orlando]

Originally Posted by Atlas

Ryan Smith on X:

This is very reassuring to here from Ryan Smith.

[RC14]

^
It is. I'm trying not to get too excited as we still don't know if we will get either team but this could be really good.

[locolife]

Originally Posted by Orlando

This is very reassuring to here from Ryan Smith.

Is it? I see a rich sports team owner who is trying to win a political vote for public support to give him an around a billion bucks. And like all these go, the math on how this money gets paid back isn’t shared. Which is what the opposition is already asking about. This doesn’t reassure me of anything, but then again I’ve seen a lot more of these play out than you all have in SLC.

We’ll see what happens

[locolife]

Originally Posted by Comrade

Remember this from a few weeks ago?



Maybe the arena can be built there?

What’s it zoned for and what does changing it require? Why have no other developments worked out there?

[Atlas]

NHL bill already passed in the Senate.

MLB bill already passed in the House.

Originally Posted by locolife

What’s it zoned for and what does changing it require? Why have no other developments worked out there?

The area is generally associated with homelessness and the RDA, which owns 11 acres of the land next to the Depot, has not managed to do anything with it for 20 years. The Rio Grande Depot also causes a transportation barrier because it's in the middle of 300 S.(enter Rio Grande Plan)

That said, there is already a lot of new development in the area, the zoning has already been updated, and the RDA has been much more aggressive lately with their newest plans (pictured above). They have the USA Climbing national training center lined up as an anchor tenant already.

[locolife]

Originally Posted by Atlas

NHL bill already passed in the Senate.

MLB bill already passed in the House.

Did you read the NHL article you posted? The bill now goes to the House, then if it passes through Utah legislature it goes on to SLC leaders who would need to approve any rise in sales tax. You’re acting like it’s done… it’s far from done. Elected leaders will be asked to pass on a significant sales tax increase, in an election year to fund a billionaires development. This never goes well.

[airhero]

Originally Posted by locolife

Did you read the NHL article you posted? The bill now goes to the House, then if it passes through Utah legislature it goes on to SLC leaders who would need to approve any rise in sales tax. You’re acting like it’s done… it’s far from done. Elected leaders will be asked to pass on a significant sales tax increase, in an election year to fund a billionaires development. This never goes well.

I think Atlas posted about it because both things just passed and it's applicable news. As far as I can tell no context from the post indicated anyone thought it was done.

[RC14]

^
I have no doubt these bills will pass. It's like they say in a recent episode of Yellowstone: "In Utah they want to do business with you."

There will be some opposition, with valid points, but it won't be enough to stop it.

[locolife]

Originally Posted by RC14

^
I have no doubt these bills will pass. It's like they say in a recent episode of Yellowstone: "In Utah they want to do business with you."

There will be some opposition, with valid points, but it won't be enough to stop it.

Haha maybe you’re right, Utah could go down as giving some of the worst stadium/arena subsidies in history but it seems the completion in other states may be getting fierce too. I have a problem with this personally but as a country we don’t seem willing to pushback so here we go.
It’s also possible the bills may pass and for example the NHL bill becomes DOA if the city leaders don’t agree to raise sales tax.

FOS always has a good take- https://www.fieldofschemes.com/

Utah state legislators are pushing ahead with plans to build both an NHL arena and an MLB stadium, despite not having teams in either sport. And also despite not quite having figured out how to pay for either of them:

• The Utah state house passed a bill to spend up to $900 million on a baseball stadium and surrounding entertainment district, provided a team arrives. However, earlier plans to fund the project with a statewide hike in hotel taxes was dropped amid opposition from rural legislators (and hotel operators), leaving the stadium bonds to be paid off, according to the bill, by statewide car rental taxes, kickbacks from sales and property taxes on the site (hello, mega-TIF!), and a whole lot of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

• The Utah state senate passed a bill to spend around another $500 million (estimated at $1 billion over 30 years, which would fund around half a billion in bonds) to create a different sports and entertainment district for the Jazz and an as-yet-nonexistent hockey team. The money would, according to the bill, allow Salt Lake City to both impose a citywide sales tax hike and also kick back the share of existing state sales taxes designated for building prisons, generating ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ in new revenue.

The two legislative bodies now swap bills, and will have to figure out how to pay for both at the same time. Dan McCay, sponsor of the senate hockey arena bill, said he didn’t want to stack the tax hikes on top of each other for the same people, “so that those become unlivable environments for those who are paying the tax”; if local residents visit both sports venues, though, their tax money will be getting funneled to both projects, plus of course everyone in the city will be dealing with the budget hole created by having taxes kicked back that could otherwise be used to pay for other things.

There’s a whole lot still to be worked out here, even before figuring out whether Salt Lake City would even get teams and what kind of leases they would demand — as we’ve seen before, lease opt-outs and state-of-the-art clauses can end up forcing cities to throw a lot of good money after bad. But the general dimensions of the plan are in place: around $1.4 billion in tax money to be set aside as a lure to get major-league hockey and baseball teams. Normally I’d call that a staggering amount of money for elected officials to give preliminary approval to all in one day, but what with the way things are going in other states, it’s going to take more than $1.4 billion to stagger anybody.

[Atlas]

Originally Posted by locolife

You’re acting like it’s done… it’s far from done.

Am I? Tbh, I am more just surprised that we are already at this point so quickly.

If one or both of the bills make it through the legislature, I actually do think it's a done deal as far as public funding goes (getting a team or two is another story). SLC will definitely rubber stamp the sales tax increase. All of the blue politicians are for it and SLC will be able to spend this money on new downtown infrastructure in addition to the stadium.

[ucsbgaucho]

New arena already has a sponsor (credit to 𝕏)


In all seriousness, these stadiums, if done right, can be a huge catalyst for growth around them, even when the surrounding development isn't planned from the outset. Petco Park in San Diego is a great example. Built on the outskirts of downtown San Diego in a not-so-pleasant area, it has completely transformed the area and is now one of the most iconic parts of the city, bustling with activity, new residents, new restaurants, etc. They got lucky though, the vote to help fund construction happened just a month after the Padres made the 1998 World Series. And the construction did jumpstart investment around it, this old research article from Stanford University talks about the projects that came about after the stadium opened. "By 2007 (three years after the ballpark opened), redevelopment projects worth approximately $4.25 billion had been completed, were underway, or were planned. Of these, $4 billion was privately funded."

[Atlas]

Utah Legislature passes MLB stadium and Fairpark development bill

A bill to catalyze development around the Utah State Fairpark and pave the way for a Major League Baseball stadium in the west side's Power District is headed to the governor's desk after receiving final approval from the Legislature on Wednesday.

[Comrade]

It very likely is going to pass every level it needs to. Cox supports it. Mendenhall supports it. It's not a done deal but fairly close to it imo

None of this means Utah is going to land a team in either league - but it does put Salt Lake one step closer to it.

Not sure why loco is so intent on denying the chances lol

[Boz]

Originally Posted by Comrade

Not sure why loco is so intent on denying the chances lol

Crazy.

[mattreedah]

Originally Posted by Comrade

It very likely is going to pass every level it needs to. Cox supports it. Mendenhall supports it. It's not a done deal but fairly close to it imo

None of this means Utah is going to land a team in either league - but it does put Salt Lake one step closer to it.

Not sure why loco is so intent on denying the chances lol

He’s a big time Coyotes fan living in Arizona and doesn’t want NHL to SLC to happen. I totally get it. I live in Arizona now and it would SUCK to potentially lose the team.