Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space

"A community’s physical form, rather than its land uses, is its most intrinsic and enduring characteristic." [Katz, EPA] This blog focuses on place and placemaking and all that makes it work--historic preservation, urban design, transportation, asset-based community development, arts & cultural development, commercial district revitalization, tourism & destination development, and quality of life advocacy--along with doses of civic engagement and good governance watchdogging.

Friday, April 14, 2023

Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Salt Lake City?

Orioles fans celebrate at Camden Yards during pregame introductions for Baltimore's home opener against the Yankees. The home team rewarded their fans with a 7-6 win. (Rob Carr/Getty Images)

There's been lots of hype in the local media in Salt Lake since Ryan Smith took over the Utah Jazz NBA basketball team, then bought the Real Salt Lake soccer team, and then started hyping wanting to bring other professional teams--hockey, baseball--to Salt Lake.

To me it was puffery because Salt Lake is a small market, about 1.2 million residents in the county, although more resident in abutting counties (Utah, Davis, Summit) add to the market for sporting events, and is significantly smaller than other "small market" baseball cities like Pittsburgh ("Why Pittsburgh doesn't have a professional basketball team," WESA-FM/NPR), Baltimore, Kansas City, Saint Louis--all of which have at least 1 million more residents in their metropolitan area than SLC.

Tampa Bay, with the worst attendance in the MLB despite significant success on the field, their metropolitan population is almost 2 million residents greater than Salt Lake. 

-- "Revisiting "Framework of characteristics that support successful community development in association with the development of professional sports facilities" and the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team + Phoenix Coyotes hockey," 2022 

Portland has been bandied about for an MLB team for years, it has 1 million more residents.  And Nashville, which has only about 700,000 more residents.

Plus, teams are going to be somewhat less profitable going forward because the bombing out of the value of regional broadcasting rights for teams and the bankruptcy of regional sports cable networks ("The Way You Watch Sports on TV Is Changing. Here’s Why," New York Times).

And in the many years ago study by American Business Journals of the capacity of metropolitan areas to add teams, Salt Lake was very low on the list.

-- "American City Business Journals calculates the capacity of North American metropolitan areas to support new/additional professional sports teams," 2015

Partly because college sports are particularly popular, especially Utah Football, and BYU Football and Basketball, which draws patronage and sponsorship away from professional sports.

But baseball is in the news, because of ESPN's, "Salt Lake City group joins MLB expansion chase" reporting on how The Miller Family, which a couple months ago announced they are decamping their minor league team to the suburbs to support their real estate ventures there ("The call of sprawl: Salt Lake Bees minor league baseball team to move to the suburbs"), are behind the effort, and they are definitely well capitalized.

But it seems like a stretch.  The market is small, and other cities like Portland and Nashville have been seeking a team for years.

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When there was first talk about the minor league team moving, I was skeptical because it makes no sense from a business perspective.

But if you're a real estate developer, you have different motivations.  Profitability of the team matters less than activating your real estate development and selling property.

But I am not a rich guy, so who cares what I say.

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6 Comments:

At 10:49 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

https://theathletic.com/4409306/2023/04/14/mlb-streaming-tv-blackouts/

 
At 4:05 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/salt-lake-citys-bid-for-a-major-league-expansion-team-is-for-real/

 
At 1:44 PM, Anonymous charlie said...

I think it's deeply ironic that you've become a great writer on --- sports stadiums.

Lots of insights in here.

I think the biggest change is a generation (or two) ago the "rich guys" were trying to move up the local social ladder/Growth Machine and like almost everything ownership has been disaggregated from locality.

Exceptions -- Ted Lerner at the Nate, Steve Cohen at the Mets, etc. But I'd say the majority of billionaire owners have almost no local connection. Josh Harris apparently grew up in DC.

It's a sad state of affairs, and athletes, let alone their owners, are over valued.

The Green Bay model remains the best one in sports, but I can see why it isn't going to be replicated.

 
At 8:56 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

It is ironic. ... I have a bunch of mentions in the comments on the "framework characteristics" article about the increasing participation of private equity and the owning of multiple teams in multiple sports across markets. I haven't written about it but like you I don't think it bodes well. Ryan Smith if the Jazz/RSL sold an interest to one and it was positioned as making it possible to bring another professional sports team here.

I just read about the Vancouver BC minor league baseball team which is the last minor league team in Canada. The others have been bought up.

But this team just got bought by a PE firm that already owns 9 or 10 other minor league teams.

Ordinarily I would have said that minor league baseball and hockey, and lower division soccer allows for the Green Bay kind of experience. That's changing too.

I haven't been to a Bees game yet. You can get two free tickets if you spend $75 at Smiths Supermarket.

As I wrote in FC, it's the first throwback minor league stadium, and amazing view of the mountains. I will go some this year. It's an easy bike ride.

That kind of experience in sports is rapidly diminishing.

 
At 9:04 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Gosh. Plus the internationalization. Not just US sports firms (Fenway and Liverpool, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Manchester United, etc.) buying UK soccer teams. But Mideastern interests. And owning multiple teams in multiple countries.

Crazy s****. So one of the things here I'm dealing with is fighting a Iowa based convenience store next to Sugar House Park.

https://buildingsaltlake.com/after-vote-against-sugar-house-kum-go-the-city-will-look-to-block-new-gas-stations-near-parks/

The multifaceted firm, based in Des Moines, has lots if businesses, and they are considering cashing out the convenience stores (450+).

Why? They bought an Italian soccer team and have lost like $120 million so far. Plus they are building a stadium for a lower division soccer team they own for Des Moines.

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/business/2020/09/15/kum-go-owners-krause-group-bid-italian-soccer-team-parma/5803987002/

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/business/2022/06/06/des-moines-soccer-stadium-delayed-least-year-iowa-soccer-development-foundation-kyle-krause-kum-go/7528727001/

 
At 11:50 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/17/sports/baseball/vancouver-canadians-minor-league.html

Oops, and 16 minor league teams, not 10.

 

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