An exciting announcement was made January 16th, 2023. The residents of Daybreak, Utah will be getting a new neighbor: The Salt Lake City Bees, Utah’s Triple-A baseball team. The new location will be between Mountain View Corridor and Utah Transit Authority’s red TRAX line which runs through Salt Lake City to the University of Utah

The team will play their last season in downtown Salt Lake in 2024 and kick off the 2025 season at their “new hive.” According to a news article by KSL, the team is grateful for the years they have had at the Smith’s ballpark “and for the incredible fans and surrounding community that support the team.” 

Even though the team is relocating, Larry H Miller officials said they will “continue to partner with community leaders to enrich and reimagine the neighborhood surrounding the current stadium.” That said, they are excited to move and build a new ballpark community in South Jordan and enrich the ever-growing community. In order to keep old fans coming back to the games, a third Trax station is potentially going to be added in the South Jordan area. More details about additional developments to South Jordan in affiliation with the ballpark are expected to be released in the months to come. 

As for funding, the stadium will be privately funded, meaning that they will receive funding from private sources that the stadium has partnered with such as businesses and foundations that are yet to be announced. With that, the team hopes to begin the construction of the stadium this year. 

South Jordan Mayor, Dawn Ramesy, has commented that she is “thrilled” with the construction of the new ballpark and applauds the Larry H Miller company for “making a private investment that we believe will be a strong anchor for this fast-growing region.” There is also talk of a new neighborhood being constructed around the ballpark to help create the strong baseball-centered neighborhood atmosphere wanted by the team and fans. 

The residents of Daybreak have expressed their excitement as well. In an article for KSL news Nadine, a homeowner near the new location said, “I think that we have a perfect spot for the stadium and I think this part of the valley needs some entertainment venues so I think this is going to be great.”  She goes on to express her excitement at the idea of the stadium being used for other events such as Daybreaks summer concerts that have been held at a small stage on SoDa Row for the past few years. 

Businesses in South Jordan will also hopefully benefit from this change. Restaurants along SoDa row will in theory be receiving more business due to the increased amount of potential customers that will be in the area on game days. This comes at a good time seeing as it is becoming increasingly expensive to rent a space on SoDa row. Businesses like Rockwell Ice Cream have been forced to close their doors because the rent increased exponentially while the amount of customers stayed relatively low. Ideally, this stadium could help to keep their doors open. 

So, many Daybreak and South Jordan residents are very excited at the announcement of The Bees moving to the neighborhood. The new ballpark could be an interesting business and community building opportunity, and though it’s not to be built for a few years it’s already begun getting many people excited for the years to come.