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SALT LAKE CITY — The coalition behind Utah's attempt to bring in a Major League Baseball team launched a new online survey Tuesday, seeking more feedback on what a possible new stadium should look like if it does land a team in the near future.
The public survey seeks to collect "insights, preferences and feedback" regarding a potential team and stadium, according to Big League Utah, a coalition of prominent Utahns backing an effort for a team. It asks Utahns about their thoughts on the major leagues and about various aspects of a future team, including stadium design, seating, ticket packages, amenities and anything else that a future stadium could offer.
All of the questions about seating and pricing is hypothetical, organization officials explain. Any information gathered from the online survey, which remains open through Sept. 4, will be added to an economic feasibility study that the coalition is currently working on.
"Feedback from the community is vital to our efforts," said Amanda Covington, spokeswoman for Big League Utah, in a statement. "We are excited to hear the community's thoughts on bringing an MLB team to Utah."
Big League Utah publicly launched its campaign to bring in a major league expansion team in April, announcing that they have a "preferred shovel-ready site" for a new stadium in Salt Lake City's new Power District. If built in that spot, it would be a key feature of about 100 acres of land that Rocky Mountain Power plans to redevelop in the future.
Larry H. Miller CEO Steve Starks, who is one of the coalition's leaders, said at the time that the group met with MLB commissioner Rob Manfred in New York City last year to discuss Utah as a future market as the league considers expanding from 30 to 32 teams.
The new survey follows focus group sessions that Big League Utah held last month that also sought feedback on the future construction of a possible ballpark.
The timeline for expansion is still vague, though. Manfred told reporters during the MLB's All-Star break last month that the league is looking to form an expansion committee "pretty shortly" after the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays finalize their future stadium plans; the former is all but set to relocate to Las Vegas.
Salt Lake City is one of a few U.S. cities that have expressed interest in expansion. The list also includes Nashville, Tennessee; Portland, Oregon; and Orlando, Florida among other possible landing spots for a future MLB club.
