Venue changes: Bees moving to the 'burbs; Delta Center reclaiming name

Brice Wallace 

One Salt Lake City professional sports team is looking to its future while another is reviving part of its past.

The Larry H. Miller Co. recently announced it will move the Triple A Salt Lake Bees baseball team from its current location in Salt Lake City to a new stadium in the Daybreak master-planned community in South Jordan. Meanwhile, Vivint Arena, home to the NBA’s Utah Jazz, this summer will revert to the Delta Center name it sported when it{mprestriction ids="1,3"} opened in 1991.

The new Bees stadium will be privately financed and will be a “year-round entertainment anchor” for the region. Construction will start this year and the team will begin play there in 2025. Details about the location, the stadium’s look and surrounding amenities will be released later this year. The Bees will play at Smith’s Ballpark, at 77 W. 1300 S., Salt Lake City, until the current lease expires in the fall of 2024.

“The team is grateful for the long-term legacy of baseball in Salt Lake City and for the incredible fans and surrounding community that support the team,” the Larry H. Miller Co. said in announcing the move.

The existing stadium opened in 1994 as Franklin Quest Field on the site of Derks Field, which had been in place since 1928 and had a 10,000 capacity when it closed. The new park had a seating capacity of about 15,400. It took on new names over the years, becoming Franklin Covey Field in 1998, Spring Mobile Ballpark in 2009 and Smith’s Ballpark in 2014. The team came with the move of the Portland Beavers to Salt Lake City. Like the stadium, the team underwent some name changes, from the Buzz to the Stingers to the Bees, a name it has had since in 2006.

In recent years, the team has seen shrinking crowds. In its first season, when it was a Minnesota Twins affiliate, it drew 713,224 fans. In 2022 as a Los Angeles Angels farm team, its fan count totaled 434,616, an average of 5,875 per game, which was up from 4,847 in 2021.

“There are many decisions coming as a result of this move,” South Jordan Mayor Dawn R. Ramsey said in an online video message following the move announcement. “We’re excited to see the future of the 1,300 acres of undeveloped land in the Daybreak community.”

Ramsey said the move was ultimately a business decision by the Larry H. Miller Co. “Given that decision, we will work with them to ensure the project is successful,” the mayor said. “The ballpark will be privately funded, and we applaud the Larry H. Miller Co. for making a private investment that we believe will be a strong anchor for this fast-growing region.”

Meanwhile, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall said that as a parent and fan, the team move to Daybreak is “disappointing.”

“But as mayor, I’m confident in our city’s future and the incredible possibilities in store for this neighborhood and the 13 acres that were just unlocked,” she said.

Mendenhall said she and her team worked for the past 20 months in an attempt to keep the Bees at Smith’s Ballpark.

The city, she said, will have access to 13 acres “of prime real estate and unparalleled opportunity to make them far more productive for our community” during a time when the city needs more housing, more economic density, more recreational opportunities, and more investment in human capital.

The mayor said she is “committed to seeing it transition from being a space activated some 70 nights a year to a place that serves Salt Lakers and our visitors 365 days per year.”

The city has ideas about what to do with the property and is launching “Ballpark Next” to get community feedback about its development. Ballpark Next includes a design competition for the property, with $30,000 in prize money to be awarded among the winners.

“This property will not become an empty pit or a public safety risk,” Mendenhall said. “I refuse to have this site — which has been so full of energy and history — to sit idle when it holds such tremendous opportunity.  We’ve been ready to invest in this spot for three years and now that we know, we’re moving forward immediately.”

Mendenhall said the Larry H. Miller Co. “loves” Salt Lake City and the ballpark neighborhood and “has treasured their time here at Smith’s Ballpark.”

The company said it is grateful for Mendenhall and her team “for engaging with us as we evaluated potential outcomes in this decision. LHM is excited about the future of Salt Lake City and will continue to partner with community leaders to enrich and reimagine the neighborhood surrounding the current stadium.”

Construction of homes in Daybreak began in 2004. The community features over 4,000 acres, with building expected to continue for up to a couple of more decades.

The renaming of the Jazz arena is less controversial than the baseball team move. Delta Air Lines, which has a hub at Salt Lake City International Airport and nearly 5,000 employees in Utah, and the team have agreed to a multi-year naming rights deal, with financial terms undisclosed.

The arena opened in 1991 as the Delta Center, a name used by many Jazz fans despite it being changed to EnergySolutions Arena in 2006, Vivint Smart Home Arena in 2015 and Vivint Arena in 2020.

“I have so many amazing memories of the Delta Center as a kid, and I know that countless people throughout Utah and beyond had similar experiences creating core memories there, whether watching the Olympics and Paralympic Winter Games, the NBA Finals, concerts or other incredible events,” said Ryan Smith, Utah Jazz owner (along with wife Ashley Smith) and chairman of Smith Entertainment Group. “We are excited to partner with (Delta CEO) Ed Bastian and the entire Delta team to not only bring back the arena’s original name, but also leverage the amazing work Delta is doing to provide incredible experiences for the people of our state and help show the world how amazing Utah is.” 

The name transition will begin July 1. The arena at 301 S. Temple seats 18,206 people for Jazz games and hosts more than 320 evenings of sports and entertainment events each year that attract a total of about 1.8 million guests. Original construction on the arena cost $66 million and began in mid-1990.{/mprestriction}