SALT LAKE CITY — The family that owns the San Diego Padres baseball team announced Thursday that they are exploring the possibility of selling the team.
A sale is not imminent, and there is no indication they would ever leave Southern California.
But Utah is building a new baseball stadium, and if the Padres were to go up for sale, should Utah make a play for them?
And would fans here support them?
So, in an admittedly unscientific study, we caught up with some fans heading into the Utah Jazz game on Thursday to get their feelings about the possibility of a team like the San Diego Padres possibly relocating to Utah.
Rene is a longtime baseball fan who says he’s all in.
“I think it will be great, I think it should happen, yeah!”
Kendall says he’s a big LA Dodger fan, but would welcome any MLB team.
“At the end of the day, if they’re here in Utah, then we’ll be fans, right? So I totally support Major League Baseball in Salt Lake City and we would get tickets.”
Jared says he and his family of 5 would be all in.
“Do you think it would just be a civic thing or are you a baseball guy? I’m a baseball guy, but we’re Cardinals fans though. But yeah, we’d go to baseball games.”
Sam, his wife Kirsten, and their two boys say they’d be fired up about MLB in Salt Lake City.
“What would you think about the possibility of the Padres relocating here? We’d love it! That ‘d be awesome! Why? I love baseball and I wanna watch Major League Baseball here in Utah. I wanna have a team.”
Kirstin concurs.
“I played softball, he played baseball, these kids are playing baseball. So we’d definitely be going to games!”
Tony and Nicole are first and foremost, Cubs fans. But these transplants to Utah say our state is ready to support a major league team, no matter who it might be.
“I think absolutely that our market could handle a professional baseball team and we’d love it! We love The Bees, we go to The Bees. And we’d love to go see some professional baseball, we have to drive to Colorado, Denver to see games now.”
Nicole is totally on board.
“Totally, 100 percent yes! I love baseball games.”
Troy is yet another Baseball Fan we spoke with who is ready for Major League Baseball in Utah.
“I think that would be awesome!
Once again, this is a very unscientific study and there is no indication that the Padres, if indeed they do go up for sale, would ever leave the comfy confines of Southern California.
But if they did, and Utah were somehow able to acquire them, it sounds like there would be plenty of folks here willing, ready and able to support them.
