The call of sprawl: Salt Lake Bees minor league baseball team to move to the suburbs

In 2021, I participated in a planning process for the Ballpark neighborhood of Salt Lake, because I am interested in stadium and arena issues.  The minor league stadium, opened in 1994, was another example of a "throwback" design in an urban setting.

I wrote about it here:

-- "Framework of characteristics that support successful community development in association with the development of professional sports facilities" (2021)

in the process, updating my evaluative framework for siting and building arenas and stadiums.

Also see:

-- "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) 
-- "Camden Yards baseball stadium is 30 years old" (2022)
-- "Does professional soccer have the same economic impact as minor league baseball in smaller cities?" (2022)
-- "Pittsburgh developer backs down on opposition to ticket fee for concerts, to be used for area improvements" (2023)

In the past few months, there were rumors that despite the planning efforts, the team was going to move.  Today, the owners, Larry H. Miller Companies, made it official.

It's not really a surprise, because in a state where sprawl is the dominant land use and transportation planning paradigm, the Miller Companies are perhaps the most prominent leader of the sprawl development contingent.  

The company was built on automobile dependence, growing into one of the largest car dealership groups in the U.S.

As a real estate developer, they've been key to suburban development throughout the Salt Lake Valley, building cinemas, car dealership malls, and shopping centers, even a community college campus, as anchors of the expansion of the development of Salt Lake County further south away from the core of Salt Lake City.  

More recently, they've sold the dealerships ("Asbury wraps up $3.2B deal for Larry H. Miller Dealerships," Automotive News) and Utah Jazz basketball team, and refocused on real estate development, buying a home builder and lots of empty land ("The Larry H. Miller Company is building communities," Utah Business, "Larry H. Miller Real Estate LLCs are buying Richardson Flat," KPCW/NPR, "Larry H. Miller’s real estate arm makes big move, buys booming Daybreak in South Jordan," Salt Lake Tribune).

Seeing the team as an activation device, the firm plans to move it to the Daybreak area, which is about 20 miles from Salt Lake's Downtown, where they have major real estate development interests.

The team as an activation device is key.  Perhaps it matters to them less that it's likely to be less successful in terms of attendance at a site in the distant suburbs.

The Ballpark neighborhood.  Interestingly, while the Bees ballpark is a great example of an urban stadium, it was poorly placed out of the belief that putting it outside of downtown would revitalize the area--"if you build it they will come"--without any substantive revitalization and development improvement plan for the neighborhood.

But I also think it's an example that the best place to put such facilities is in a city's downtown or waterfront.

Suburban locations for stadiums and arenas.  This is the same issue with suburban stadiums.  They don't do much for an area.  It's hard to activate an area beyond the days that a stadium or arena is operative, and various logistical issues make ancillary development of retail and food and drink establishments difficult.  

Certainly, the Real Salt Lake soccer stadium in Sandy doesn't seem particularly well sited or able to generate positive urban design and development energy.

This is why the 1990s and 2000s have been marked by stadiums and arenas relocating from the suburbs to the city.  Although there have been notable exceptions such as the Atlanta Braves and the San Francisco 49ers.

Metropolitan planning for key traffic generators.  When the Netherlands reset their land use and transportation planning policy away from automobile dependence, one of the things they did was add a "transportation demand" lens to their approval of new development applications ("Utrecht: ABC Planning as a planning instrument in urban planning policy"). 

 High transportation uses were shifted to locations where transit could handle the bulk of the demand.

Most metropolitan areas do not have even minimal requirements along these lines, with Portland, Oregon being one of the only exceptions.

The laws and regulations creating the metropolitan planning organization process for transportation planning under the auspices and requirements of the US Department of Transportation should be modified to have such requirements for stadiums and arenas, (and airports) among other uses.

Note that Phoenix, Seattle ("Seattle Kraken expansion hockey team sets new standard for transit benefits in transportation demand management: free transit with ticket," 2021), Chicago (for the Cubs), and San Francisco have transportation demand management requirements that mean that event attendees can mostly ride transit for free, to deemphasize the focus on automobile transportation.

This needs to be built into metropolitan planning requirements for stadiums and arenas too.

Other stadium and arena developments underway.  

• The Oakland A's baseball team is itching to relocate to Las Vegas, although a proposal for the Oakland waterfront is still in play
• The Kansas City Royals have released a plan to relocate to a more centrally located stadium downtown
• The Chicago Bears football team aims to relocate to the suburbs
• Same with the Washington Commanders, from Maryland suburbs to Virginia suburbs
• The Buffalo Bills got over $1 billion in subsidies to build a new suburban stadium.  Interestingly, the economic comparison found minimal benefits were the team to be located in the center city
• Interesting coverage on San Diego, since the Chargers football team left for Los Angeles ("Six years since Chargers relocation, City Hall continues to struggle," San Diego Union Tribune)
• Philadelphia 76ers want to relocate to Downtown