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SALT LAKE CITY — Backers of an effort to bring Major League Baseball to Utah undoubtedly are keeping an eye on the situation in Tampa Bay while taking in the latest from commissioner Rob Manfred on expansion.
But the Larry H. Miller Company didn't have any updates to share Friday as it continues to make its case for a franchise in Salt Lake City.
The Rays will play the 2025 season at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa after Hurricane Milton shredded the roof of Tropicana Field, their home in St. Petersburg. Compounding the situation, local government officials this week balked at paying to repair the roof and put off votes on public funding for the team's new proposed $1.3 billion stadium in St. Petersburg set to open in 2028.
Those issues leave the Rays' short- and long-term future in St. Petersburg in doubt, according to MLB.com. But Manfred said it's too early to make any declarations about the club's ballpark problems.
"There's a lot of uncertainty with respect to the situation in Tampa; much of that uncertainty we just don't control," he said at the league's owners meeting Wednesday. "We need to let the government officials in Tampa Bay sort where they are on a variety of issues. I understand the delay given the kind of damage that they suffered down there. We're just going to have to wait for that uncertainty to resolve itself."
Baseball expansion timeline
Manfred has maintained that ballpark issues in Tampa Bay and Oakland needed to be taken care of before the league would consider expansion. The A's seem all but certain to move to Las Vegas, where a new stadium on the Strip is supposed to be finished for the 2028 season. The team will temporarily play in Sacramento. The Miller Company made an unsuccessful pitch for the A's to make Utah their interim home.
What all that means for Big League Utah, the Miller-led coalition of business leaders, politicians and others, is more wait-and-see.
Manfred sounded confident the A's will indeed take up residence in Las Vegas.
"I understand there seems to be some sense of doubt that persists out there, but (A's owner) John Fisher is completely committed to the process. The building has been demolished; the site is available. They are on track for a 2028 opening. They've gone through the process of demonstrating that whether or not he takes local partners, he has capacity to build the stadium. We're full speed ahead," the commissioner said, per MLB.com.
"I'm hopeful we'll be able to work through the situation in Tampa Bay in a way that keeps me on the timetable I've articulated, which is to have an expansion decision made before I leave in four years," Manfred said.
Manfred said at his annual summer meeting with the Associated Press Sports Editors group that he anticipates having a two-team expansion process in place by January 2029, when his term as commissioner ends. A new team wouldn't begin play until 2031. Manfred has declined to talk about the viability of any city but said baseball would need a new team in the East and the West to make the format work.
Is Salt Lake City ready for an MLB team?
Steve Starks, Miller Company CEO, told the Deseret News in an interview in September that Salt Lake City continues to be "really well positioned" to land a big league team.
"I think expansion is taking a bit of a backseat to other priorities that Major League Baseball is dealing with. They know where we are, and we have a dialogue with them. But we also respect that there will be a process and that that process hasn't begun yet. The worst thing we can do is try to force ourselves into a conversation when that conversation is not ready right now," he said.
"We have done everything we can to this point to be the most prepared market for potential expansion, and we'll continue to do that," Starks said.
Other possible expansion cities include Nashville — widely seen as the front-runner — Portland, Montreal, Charlotte and Austin. Earlier this year, ESPN baseball analyst Buster Olney and former Cy Young award winner David Cone both independently called Salt Lake City the most likely expansion site after Nashville.
The Miller Company intends to build an MLB stadium to anchor its $3.5 billion mixed-use development on Salt Lake City's west side if it secures a team. The Utah Legislature passed a bill earlier this year that would divert $900 million from a rental car tax increase to help fund a ballpark in the city's Power District. Construction on other aspects of the project are expected to start early next year.
