Last month really got away from me.
I’ve had so much stuff going on over the past few weeks that I barely had time to think about newsletter topics, let alone actually write one. My full-time job (as a real estate agent, if you didn’t know) has been pretty busy, my part-time restaurant job started picking up now that the weather is getting better, and I spent all of last week organizing and volunteering for the Wasatch Mountain Film Festival.
Those are all positives in my life, but I’ve missed setting up at a coffee shop with my headphones on and bullshitting about Salt Lake City. So on that note, let’s do a little Lightning Round on some news.
Baseball! - Man, a LOT has happened in the baseball world since I wrote about the Bees leaving downtown for Daybreak. Turns out, the Miller family is trying to keep baseball in Salt Lake City after all. There was an article in the SL Tribune that lays out how building a baseball stadium in the Rose Park neighborhood has been in the works for months. People started touching base with Jazz owner Ryan Smith all the way back in September of 2022, before talks kind of fizzled out. Smith seemed mildly interested at first, but has since shifted his focus to bringing a pro hockey team to Utah instead. He even had dinner with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman in New York last month. Once Smith made it clear he had other priorities, the group moved on to courting the Miller family. SLC Mayor Erin Mendenhall was involved in the first set of plans, but after Smith moved on—and while Mendenhall and her staff were looking for ways to keep the Bees downtown—the group approached the Miller family. The Miller family announced the departure of the Bees on January 17, and “learned more about” the Power District MLB club on January 24 (according the Tribune’s reporting, which was gained from emails obtained through a public records request).
A few takeaways from all that news:
First, Smith’s Ballpark is most likely done for. There are some groups working on keeping the stadium with the intent to turn it into a women’s sports complex, which is a great idea that would be pretty fun, but I doubt it will happen. The land is too valuable, and too many developers are in the mix for something that will make them a ton of money.
Second, getting an MLB team is still a long shot. The league is open to expansion, but commissioner Rob Manfred said nothing will happen on that front until the situations with the A’s and Rays have been sorted out, which seem to be in motion already. The Athletics organization just bought a bunch of land in Las Vegas, and is likely following the Raiders lead and leaving Oakland behind. The Tampa Bay Rays are another team that needs to move, and they need to get the hell out of Florida ASAP. They have a great organization, but the worst park in baseball, and there’s never more than like 200 people at the games—even when they’re doing well. If they move, and the league opens up two expansion spots, that leaves about five cities vying for three teams. The cities with the highest chances are Nashville, Charlotte, San Antonio, Portland, and as of three weeks ago, Salt Lake City. Montreal and Mexico City have been mentioned, but it seems like those are pipe dreams at best. I think Salt Lake has better odds than Portland—unless they promise to build a stadium with a retractable roof—but Nashville and Charlotte have been working on getting a team for a lot longer. Bottom line is that I’m skeptical. It would be fun to have a baseball team here, but I’m not getting my hopes up. But I also didn’t think SLC had a shot to even be *in* the discussion, so what do I know?
Main Street - Possibly the only good thing that came from the pandemic was Open Main Street. The emergency measures put in place to help businesses downtown allowed them to turn the sidewalk in front of their establishments into usable space, which expanded capacity everywhere. The city helped further that by closing the street to traffic between North Temple and 400 South. The past three summers downtown have been really fun, lively, and a lot less stressful without Uber drivers barrelling down Main Street at 11pm. Unfortunately, the emergency orders that made all of that possible have since expired, so it’s back to business as usual until September at the earliest. A study is underway to see if turning Main Street into a pedestrian only thoroughfare would be possible permanently, but the results aren’t in yet. The thing that concerns the city the most (from the sound of things) is the loss of revenue from street parking, because of course it is. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted, but this summer, you’ll have to keep an eye out for cars while you’re wandering from Quarters to Cheers to You. Or if you’re like me, you won’t be able to eat Monkey Wrench and people watch as easily. Very sad.
Summer Concerts - The Twilight Concert Series and Red Butte both announced their lineups, and honestly, they were pretty underwhelming. Red Butte hardly ever has something I’m interested in, but I still get a little excited at the possibility each year. The Twilight shows at Gallivan however, usually have at least one band I’m interested in, but not this year. I’ve seen Death Cab a bunch of times, and saw Soccer Mommy earlier this year. I think every show is sold out already, so I’m clearly not the target audience, but I was really hoping for someone I wanted to see. The Ogden series might as well not exist in my eyes, because no way am I driving up there to see anyone. At least I’ve got the Kilby Block Party in a few weeks. I’m very excited to see Yeah, Yeah, Yeah’s, Japanese Breakfast, Pavement, and The Pixies. Just gotta figure out a way to tell my mom I’m busy on Mother’s Day.
That’s probably enough for now. It’s not snowing anymore, so go outside and walk around. I put my patio furniture out the other day, and I can’t wait to sit on my porch in the morning and drink smoothies while I read the news, and then not write about it. Gonna be a great summer.