- Nashville leads MLB expansion cities with 73% fan support in The Athletic survey.
- Salt Lake City, a western frontrunner, lags behind Portland, receiving 30% support.
- Only 51% of fans favor MLB expansion; Salt Lake City plans a potential stadium site.
SALT LAKE CITY — Several prominent baseball analysts have touted Salt Lake City as a frontrunner in the race for a major league expansion team.
But what do baseball fans think?
The Athletic asked that question in its annual MLB fan survey. Specifically, "Which potential expansion cities would you most like to see get a new franchise?"
The publication limited the choices to the six cities that have expansion efforts underway — Austin, Nashville, Orlando, Portland, Raleigh and Salt Lake City. Survey respondents were asked to choose two.
Nashville was the runaway favorite with 73% of the 12,901 respondents choosing the Music City. The city has been considered a shoo-in for one of the two expansion franchises the league looks to identify before MLB commissioner Rob Manfred retires in 2029. He has also stated his preference for one team in the East and one in the West.
Play ball in Portland or Salt Lake City?
In a story last month, the Athletic called Salt Lake City the frontrunner in the West. But fans in its survey didn't quite see it that way.
Portland came in a distant second behind Nashville at 47%. Salt Lake City was even further back at 30%.
The Rose City has a head start on the Beehive State, with a group of investors, including NFL quarterback Russell Wilson and his singer/songwriter wife Ciara, launching the Portland Diamond Project in 2017.
A coalition of prominent Utahns led by the Larry H. Miller Company created Big League Utah in 2023 to pursue an MLB team for the state.
Salt Lake City scored a win in the mild rivalry with Portland when it pulled Oregon native and former two-time National League MVP Dale Murphy away from his advisory role with the Portland Diamond Project. The former Atlanta Braves' star, who has lived in Utah since a year after his retirement from baseball in 1993, is now going to bat for Salt Lake City.
In the survey, Raleigh finished fourth at 26%, followed by Austin at 12% and Orlando at 5%. But "other" actually came in ahead of Orlando with 8% of the vote. Montreal was by far the highest vote-getter in the survey's write-in option.
Do fans want MLB expansion?
The Athletic also asked baseball fans if they favor MLB expansion to 32 teams. Interestingly, only a slight majority, 51%, were in favor, while 31% were opposed. Another 18% had no opinion.
The outlet noted that when it asked the question in 2022, 61.7% were in favor, but the survey did not include a "no opinion" option. In 2023, 72.2% of respondents said yes to expansion.
"Maybe expansion was more top of mind at that point," according to The Athletic.
Baseball on the brain
It certainly was top of mind in Salt Lake City last week when the Miller Company announced plans to restore the Jordan River as part of its $3.5 billion mixed-use development on the west side that includes a big league stadium site.
In addition to The Athletic deeming Salt Lake City a frontrunner, popular sports radio personality Chris "Mad Dog" Russo predicted the city, along with Nashville, would get baseball's two new teams. Other baseball analysts made the same prediction for the past couple of years.
Miller Company CEO Steve Starks told the Deseret News last week that the company is working with ballpark architects on site plans for where a stadium would go, how it would be oriented and seating capacity. Generally, it would be located on the west side of the river facing the Wasatch Mountains. Home run balls leaving the park could land in the water.
Visions of McCovey Cove outside Oracle Park in San Francisco came to Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan, as he talked about the Miller project at a news conference last Thursday.
"This is the continued momentum on our promise to this area, to this neighborhood, to our community, to the river, to the lake and to our state," he said at the news conference.
"With this dream: That in April of 2032, this river will be full of kayaks, canoes and fishing nets of people waiting to catch the first home run by a left-handed batter hit into this river with Utah's Major League Baseball team."
