The Larry H. Miller Co. -- which recently purchased Real Salt Lake and the NWSL’s Utah Royals -- plans to “further develop the area” around America First Field in Sandy, Utah, with “more restaurants and other entertainment options” for fans, according to Reynolds & Larsen of the SALT LAKE TRIBUNE. Larry H. Miller Co. CEO Steve Starks said that while large-scale plans are “still to be determined,” the Miller group “hopes to expand amenities on both sides” of America First Field, “improving the game day experience.” Sandy officials are “open to the project, even in its early stages.” Sandy Mayor Monica Zoltanski said that an entertainment district “would pair nicely” with the Smith Entertainment Group’s new NHL practice facility. The financial scale of the project is “unclear at this point, as is whether Sandy would be asked to provide any funding.” The Millers are also “developing a third sports and entertainment district along North Temple in Salt Lake City.” LHM hopes the Power District “will one day be home to” an MLB team. There was “speculation” that RSL “could be forced to build a new stadium” if MLS chooses to move to a winter calendar to better align with leagues around the world. But Starks said that there are “ways around that,” noting that they can renovate America First Field with “heating under the field to keep the playing surface playable even in the winter months” (SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 4/18).
FRONT AND CENTER: In Salt Lake, Gordan Monson wrote as for baseball, the Miller family is “front and center” on MLB’s radar, waiting for the time when expansion “comes into sharper view.” They have “done pretty much everything they can,” they have “promulgated as much as possible,” to make themselves and Utah attractive to other MLB owners “so as to be accepted.” Real Salt Lake, on the other hand, is a “reclamation project, or rather, a project in need of renovation.” Monson wrote the Millers’ task is to “make RSL and Royals games experiences worth having, which is to say, worth paying for and paying for again, and, most importantly ... win” (SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 4/18).
