Utah on Deck: Salt Lake City Emerges as Front-Runner for MLB Expansion

Salt Lake City is among the top contenders for one of two MLB expansion franchises expected to be awarded before 2032, with the Larry H. Miller Company's Big League Utah coalition leading the charge. Photo: Phil Goodwin

Big League Utah's Power District proposal, a shovel-ready stadium site, and a well-funded ownership group have put the state in a class of its own.

SALT LAKE CITY, UT — may be closer to major league baseball than most people realize.

USA Today MLB columnist Bob Nightengale said last week that Salt Lake City has separated itself from competing western markets vying for a franchise. “Salt Lake City’s in the driver’s seat,” Nightengale told ABC4 Sports. “I think something would really have to go awry for them not to get one of these expansion teams.”

The MLB has not expanded since 1998, when the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Rays joined the league, pushing the total number of teams to 30. Commissioner Rob Manfred has said publicly he wants to reach 32 teams before he leaves office. Nightengale suggests expansion could be announced as early as 2028, with new franchises beginning play by 2031 or 2032.

Nightengale named Salt Lake City and Nashville as the leading candidates — one from the West, one from the East. “But Nashville is not set in stone like Salt Lake City is,” he said. “So that’s why I think places like Portland, Vancouver, and Sacramento are almost wasting their time. I think they’re definitely going to Salt Lake.”

The driving force behind Utah’s bid is Big League Utah, a coalition led by the Larry H. Miller Company. The Miller Company has a shovel-ready site for a stadium in what it calls the Power District, a nearly 100-acre parcel on Salt Lake City’s west side, adjacent to the Utah State Fairpark and the Jordan River. In February, the company hired Field Operations, a landscape architecture and urban design firm, to develop plans to restore and enhance the Jordan River corridor running through the heart of the district.

Nightengale cited the ownership group as a key factor in Salt Lake City’s edge. “They’ve been very impressed, and Salt Lake City has been out in front,” he said. “They’re ahead of Nashville just because they’ve got the ownership group in place.”

Utah’s capital city has seen significant growth since hosting the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, and the development of professional sports has been central to Salt Lake’s expansion. The state legislature has also moved to support the effort. Utah’s HB 562 allocates funding for the development in the surrounding Fairpark neighborhood, contingent on the state securing expansion team by 2032.

The competition is not standing still. Sacramento formally announced its own pursuit of an MLB expansion franchise last week, with local investors seeking an anchor investor to lead the effort — though Nightengale has said that push may be too little, too late.

One significant variable remains: the current MLB collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1, 2026. Before any expansion can be formalized, the league and the MLB Players Association will need to negotiate a new deal. The last labor stoppage, in 2022, cost the league much of spring training.

For Park City and Summit County residents who follow the Jazz, the Utah Hockey Club, or Real Salt Lake, the possibility of a Major League Baseball franchise next door would mark another chapter in Utah’s ongoing ascent as a major-league sports state.