- Bryant Heath
- The view of Smith’s Ballpark—current home of the Bees—from the homes on Richards Street near Merrimac Avenue.
With the NBA and NHL seasons recently wrapping up, and with it still being months away from the start of football, we have officially hit the summer sports doldrums where pretty much nothing is left but baseball and soccer.
Nationally, that might mean lower television ratings for ESPN or sleepy evenings in some of the larger "four-sport cities"—where they have a spectrum of professional teams. But here in Salt Lake City, we are in our element. The Bees are buzzing in Ballpark and throngs still attend Real Salt Lake matches, in spite of both team's middling, mid-season standings.
This year, it hasn't been the on-field performances that have caught all the headlines but rather the C-suite decision making going on behind the scenes. The Miller family, like most ambitious prospects, are hoping to make the leap from the minor leagues to the majors and secure an MLB team for SLC after choosing to move the Bees to Daybreak when the 2024 season.
The relocation will undoubtedly have massive effects—none more apparent than for the folks that live on Richards Street just north of Merrimac Avenue, who have had a front porch view of the back of the scoreboard for decades (above photo). For them, the din of PA announcers, roaring crowds and occasional fireworks will undoubtedly be exchanged for that of excavators, cranes and power tools in a short time.
But seeing the re-imaginings of the area generated through the city's Ballpark NEXT Design Competition makes me optimistic about the Ballpark neighborhood's future. And since the winning entries are non-binding for the city, I'd like to offer my own pitch for inclusion in the final design: a Little League playing field like the one they have for Crown Colony Baseball in Holladay at Kings Row Drive and Rebecca Circle (lower left).
It's a single field of about two acres embedded in the neighborhood with magnificent views of Mount Olympus—something I feel could be easily replicated in Ballpark. Rather than follow the lead of Jackson Park (lower right), let's keep playing ball in Salt Lake City!
- Bryant Heath
- Left: The Crown Colony Baseball Field in Holladay.Right: No love for America’s pastime at Jackson Park.
