Ryan Smith says SEG will ‘be aggressive’ in pursuing MLB expansion
Sep 24, 2026, 5:58 PM
Ryan Smith, owner of the Utah Jazz and CEO of Smith Entertainment Group, speaks during an introductory press conference for Darryn Peterson held at the Zions Bank Basketball Campus in Salt Lake City on Saturday, June 27, 2026. (Photo courtesy of Isaac Hale, Deseret News)
(Photo courtesy of Isaac Hale, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — MLB expansion to Utah has become a major talking point in the world of baseball.
Big League Utah, spearheaded by the Miller family, has spent years making the case that Salt Lake City is ready for its third Big Four professional sports team.
In an interview with Front Office Sports this week, Jazz and Mammoth owner Ryan Smith threw his hat in the ring.
Our group will be pretty aggressive in how we pursue sports. I think that’s probably all I’ll say. We do it our own way. We don’t do a lot publicly. I actually think that’s not the way expansion really gets done. Salt Lake is ready for it. We will be aggressive if there’s an opportunity there.
An ESPN story from earlier this month said that expansion fees for the MLB are expected around $2.5 billion per franchise. The combined price tag for a two-team expansion could approach $6 billion.
Money aside, the Miller family and the Big League Utah coalition has one major advantage. They have already secured a proposed stadium site and begun developing the surrounding Power District, a roughly 100-acre mixed-use project on Salt Lake City’s west side.
How Utah climbed to the top of MLB expansion conversation
That conversation picked up even more steam when USA Today MLB columnist Bob Nightengale reported that Utah and Nashville are viewed as the “heavy favorites” for the league’s 31st and 32nd franchises.
While cities like Portland and Sacramento are preparing their bids for potential MLB expansion sites in 2031 or later, they might be wasting their time. If MLB indeed expands, Salt Lake City and Nashville are the heavy favorites.
Nothing has been awarded, and the timeline remains uncertain, but commissioner Rob Manfred has made clear expansion is a goal he would like to see advanced before his tenure ends in January 2029.
