SLC is lobbying for a pro baseball team

[LDSGator]

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/36169718/salt-lake-city-group-joins-mlb-expansion-chase?fbclid=IwAR3t-xkC44gWbmZ82a9JzYrQaY35jXQecLsM3Gj--XqWKSVCAwYarNUwgsA&mibextid=Zxz2cZ

 

"Salt Lake City is a major league city," said Steve Starks, CEO of the Miller Company. "We believe that as a top-30 media market in the fastest-growing state in the country with the youngest population, that's where our attention should be -- and that we could accomplish bringing a team to the Wasatch Front."

Edited April 12, 2023 by LDSGator

[Vort]

Be careful what you wish for. Salt Lake City also lobbied for the 2002 Winter Olympics.

[LDSGator]

26 minutes ago, Vort said:

Be careful what you wish for

Let me write that one down. 
 

26 minutes ago, Vort said:

Salt Lake City also lobbied for the 2002 Winter Olympics.

That was a net negative for the city? 
 

I’m all for expansion in any city they can get. Vegas? Sure. Charlotte? Sure. Nashville? Sure. Salt Lake City? Sure. 

[Vort]

16 minutes ago, LDSGator said:

That was a net negative for the city? 

IMO, an inestimable loss, a public deflowering of a once-beautiful city, another very large step on the journey to Gomorrah. I watched in shock from the outside, wondering how any reasonable Utah Saint could actually want and welcome the notoriety and corruption that inevitably follows the Olympic Games. Clearly, I and those like me formed but a tiny minority. But that doesn't mean we were wrong.

[LDSGator]

7 minutes ago, Vort said:

IMO, an inestimable loss, a public deflowering of a once-beautiful city, another very large step on the journey to Gomorrah. I watched in shock from the outside, wondering how any reasonable Utah Saint could actually want and welcome the notoriety and corruption that inevitably follows the Olympic Games. Clearly, I and those like me formed but a tiny minority. But that doesn't mean we were wrong.

doesn't mean you were right either. If SLC is chosen for a major league team, the city will be just fine. 
 

Baseball fans who want to see major league action won’t have to go to Denver or LA. But I sort of doubt baseball is that big out there due to the snow. Is it big out there? You can’t play for like half the year!

Edited April 12, 2023 by LDSGator

[NeuroTypical]

Heh - well, to @Vort's point, the 2002 Winter Olympics introduced the world to Mitt Romney.  The SLC Olympic Bid scandal made international news, and everyone seemed happy that we brought in respectable, no-nonsense, eminently trustworthy Mitt to keep an eye on things and make sure we didn't send any alcohol-pouring prostitutes to the IOC. 

But from where I'm standing, it also sort of marked the end of some of the stupider urban myths about LDS folk, theology, and culture.  I remember lots and lots of expressed worry that they shouldn't send their female athletes to SLC, because the Mormons would kidnap 'em and make 'em sister-wives.  Our critics lost an awful lot of oomph behind all the "they're a bunch of cultic weirdos" frenzy that fed an entire industry of itinerant speakers that could live off of an anti-mormon lecture circuit. 

I remember I was working in Denver in a cube farm with the turn-of-the-century's version of woke millennials .  I was talking to my dad in SLC on my lunch break, opining about how the upcoming winter olympics was "the best opportunity we've had to convince the world we're not all nuts".  I heard a friendly snort from over the cube wall.  It was an ice breaker with my co-worker, who had indeed heard all sorts of things about mormons not being able to work in cities that serve alcohol, and had a congenital defect because of all the inbreeding that led us to have hornlike protrusions on our skulls, and other things. 

So, sort of a mixed bag.  SLC had been slightly less than half Mormon for decades prior, but yeah, I think the city got a heck of a lot more secular after it showed up on the world stage.

Edited April 12, 2023 by NeuroTypical

[LDSGator]

Just now, NeuroTypical said:

Heh - well, to @Vort's point, the 2002 Winter Olympics introduced the world to Mitt Romney.  The SLC Olympic Bid scandal made international news, and everyone seemed happy that we brought in respectable, no-nonsense, eminently trustworthy Mitt to keep an eye on things and make sure we didn't send any alcohol-pouring prostitutes to the IOC. 

But from where I'm standing, it also sort of marked the end of some of the stupider urban myths about LDS folk, theology, and culture.  I remember lots and lots of expressed worry that they shouldn't send their female athletes to SLC, because the Mormons would kidnap 'em and make 'em sister-wives.  Our critics lost an awful lot of oomph behind all the "they're a bunch of cultic weirdos" frenzy that fed an entire industry of itinerant speakers that could live off of an anti-mormon lecture circuit. 

I remember I was working in Denver in a cube farm with the turn-of-the-century's version of woke millennials .  I was talking to my dad in SLC on my lunch break, opining about how the upcoming winter olympics was "the best opportunity we've had to convince the world we're not all nuts".  I heard a friendly snort from over the cube wall, and it was an ice breaker with my co-worker, who had indeed heard all sorts of things about mormons not being able to work in cities that serve alcohol, and had a congenital defect because of all the inbreeding that led us to have hornlike protrusions on our skulls, and other things. 

So, sort of a mixed bag.  SLC had been slightly less than half Mormon for decades prior, but yeah, I think the city got a heck of a lot more secular after it showed up on the world stage.

That’s all legit. And very interesting.

 

I’m someone who grew up so far away from mormonism that I don’t think I ever even saw a missionary in person until I was in college. I remember seeing President Hinckley on Larry King and the PR work he did (not an insult, what else can you call it?) in the 90’s. Wasn’t he trying to bring the church outside of Utah in into the rest of the world? Didn’t the Olympics help do that? 
 

And your final point is dead on. SLC had an out lesbian as mayor (they still might?) and hasn’t really been aligned with LDS values for decades now. Was that due to the olympics or just secularization? 

[NeuroTypical]

1 minute ago, LDSGator said:

And your final point is dead on. SLC had an out lesbian as mayor (they still might?) and hasn’t really been aligned with LDS values for decades now. Was that due to the olympics or just secularization? 

Oh heck - Utah in general, and SLC in particular, has always been a battleground between saints and the secular world.  We almost went to war with the federal government.  We were the center of an awful lot of federal anti-polygamy legislation.  Not every church can brag about having a picture like this:

(That's George Q. Cannon and 14 bishops.)

And you can make a pretty strong case that Mormons are the reason that women have the right to vote in America.  Mormons wanted polygamy.  The Feds didn't.  local and state elections were split 50/50 with no clear victor.  Women couldn't vote, and both sides thought if they could, they'd surely vote for/against polygamy.  So they gave women the right to vote, and the LDS women voted in favor of polygamy.  (This was 20+ years before the 19th amendment finally settled things nationally.)

[The Folk Prophet]

1 hour ago, LDSGator said:

doesn't mean you were right either

But....it's @Vort. Isn't he always right?

Unless he's debating with me, of course.

[pam]

5 hours ago, LDSGator said:

Let me write that one down. 
 

That was a net negative for the city? 
 

I’m all for expansion in any city they can get. Vegas? Sure. Charlotte? Sure. Nashville? Sure. Salt Lake City? Sure. 

Actually Mitt Romney who took over the management of the 2002 Olympics got the city into the black for the cost of it.  He did a great job managing what had been a hot mess.

[LDSGator]

17 minutes ago, pam said:

Actually Mitt Romney who took over the management of the 2002 Olympics got the city into the black for the cost of it.  He did a great job managing what had been a hot mess.

That’s what I always heard as well. 

[mikbone]

On 4/12/2023 at 2:36 PM, NeuroTypical said:

Not every church can brag about having a picture like this:

This bishop looks like he can play ball.

Edited April 17, 2023 by mikbone

[SilentOne]

Say it happens. Any ideas for a cool name?

Would it be ridiculous to have the Bees and the Buzz? Did the Bees used to be called the Buzz?

[Emmanuel Goldstein]

19 hours ago, SilentOne said:

Say it happens. Any ideas for a cool name?

Would it be ridiculous to have the Bees and the Buzz? Did the Bees used to be called the Buzz?

Pioneers

[NeuroTypical]

The Lime Jello Molders.

[LDSGator]

https://www.sltrib.com/sports/2023/04/21/colorado-rockies-owner-supports-an/?fbclid=IwAR03M9ttskzGpYsFXgweZedqxRP9V6DbCOG-x6gkVxnXcrnJKoJQkKCFZbQ&mibextid=Zxz2cZ
 

SLC has some support from rival teams.