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SALT LAKE CITY — The Salt Lake Bees will bid farewell to Smith's Ballpark on Sept. 22, but it's now clear when the Bees will make their Daybreak debut.
The team will begin next season on the road at El Paso and Albuquerque before playing its first game at Daybreak Field at America First Square on April 8, 2025, against the Reno Aces, according to the newly released Pacific Coast League schedule.
In all, 75 home games are on next year's schedule, 12 against Reno and Sacramento; nine against Tacoma; and six apiece against Albuquerque, El Paso, Las Vegas, Oklahoma City, Round Rock and Sugar Land.
The league schedule was released after Major League Baseball factored in a new complexity. The Oakland Athletics and Sacramento River Cats, an affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, will share Sutter Health Park beginning next season before the A's relocate to Las Vegas in 2028, so the schedules were crafted to avoid conflicts between the two teams.
Larry H. Miller Sports + Entertainment broke ground on the new Bees stadium last fall after announcing in January 2023 that it would move out of Smith's Ballpark after the 2024 season. The new stadium will seat up to 8,000 fans, which is smaller than the stadium the team is leaving.
The future of Smith's Ballpark is yet to be determined. The Redevelopment Agency of Salt Lake City hired Perkins&Will and Kimley-Horn to help the city plan out the development and transportation needs for the area. Perkins&Will oversaw the transformation of Turner Park in Atlanta after the Atlanta Braves moved out nearly a decade ago.
Lauren Parisi, a senior project manager with the Redevelopment Agency, said earlier this month that a draft version of a document outlining the land's future could be released by the end of this year. It will determine if the city will "reimagine" the stadium, keep elements of the stadium or demolish it altogether for a new use.
She added that she believes any construction likely wouldn't begin until 2026 at the earliest. Smith's Ballpark opened in 1994 to accommodate what was initially the Salt Lake Buzz after the team relocated from Portland, Oregon.
