Saltlake City is definately a small market. I am sure nay sayers have their doubts. Being a numbers man and havng these numbers handy I thought I would share them with you lovely people All Stats are from the 2000 Census Salt lake City has a MSA of 968,858 26.1% growth rate since 1990 Ogden-clearfield has a MSA of 442,656 25.8% growth rate since 1990 Provo-Orem has a MSA of 376,774 39.9% growth rate since 1990 Logan has a MSA of 102,720 29.9% growth rate since 1990 all these cities are definately within driving range of SLC. Logan being the biggest stretch. IIRC from being there during the Olympics they have a light rail but I dont know where it goes. surely downtown, but no idea how far N and S into the burbs. Add these populations and you see that there are 1,890,000 people within driving distance. and 5 years into a team being here there would be 2,438,000 if population trends continue thru 2010. So its pretty safe to say that it is a fast growing area and they only have 1 other sport. Someone have the TV numbers? I assume it is a growing TV market as well, and it is definately the focal point for the whole state and even parts of IDaho and Wyoming
Logan is about 90 minutes from Salt Lake, a nice drive as long as it's not winter. Ogden and Provo, as long as it's not rush hour, are within 30 minutes, all on a minimum of 3 lane freeway (The freeway goes to 4, then 5 lanes as you get closer to Salt Lake) 90% of Utah's population exists in the 4 areas you mentioned, despite it being only a 120 mile by 40 miles strip of land (basically) While we may not have any other top level sports teams besides the Jazz, Salt Lake has AAA Baseball (Angels top affiliate), AHL Hockey (Phoenix Coyotes top affiliate). Besides that pro draw, there are 3 D-1 football programs and 1 D-1AA Football program in that corridor. On a weekend when all 4 teams are at home, there are approximately 160,000 seats to fill. On a day when all 5 D-1 Basketball teams, and the Utah Jazz, are in town, there are 86,000 seats to fill. The Utah Grizzlies and the Salt Lake Stingers (Minor league teams) are in the top half of attendance, and, the Stingers hold the PCL attendance record I do believe. Light Rail runs from approximately 10,000 south (Or 100th South if you're a local) to the middle of Downtown, AND, to Rice-Eccles Stadium (There's a stop at the Stadium). It's been a huge hit, and, for University of Utah games the trains are flat out jammed. Salt Lake is a top 35 TV Market. And, Salt Lake International Airport has over 700 departures and arrivals daily. Salt Lake is Delta's 3rd largest hub, and, it's only Western Hub (If you want to fly to the west on Delta, you'll land in Salt Lake most likely). So, travel for teams, and fans, shouldn't be too hard. (We also have 60+ Southwest flights each day last I checked)
during the summer there will not be as much competition for getting fans. with the stingers and blitzz being the only big competition. here is a link to the trax map: http://www.rideuta.com/schedulesAndMaps/systemMaps/TRAXmap.gif i would post the image, but its pretty big. it basically runs from south temple (0 south for non locals) to 10000 south(which is 100 blocks, reason for 10,000 is so they can take into account half a block or a third of a block, etc.). the university line froms main street (0 east/west) up to the rice ecles stadium then north a little ways to the university hospital. a little note on salt lake blocks, they are BIG. i mean bigger than your average city block. id say by about 2 times. so 100 blocks (from 0 south to 10000 south) would be like from 0 south to 20000 south in another city. an out of towner has to realize that its actually not 10,000, but 100.00. the last 2 zeros (or any numbers) are for fractions of a block. i live on 6735 south. thats not 6,735 south its 67.35 south. 67 blocks and change. trax has been a huge hit so far, and during the olympics it relieved sooooo much traffic congestion. that and the 1 billion dollar+ freeway that was the epitomy of a lot of peoples anger for several years before the olympics. that has to go down as the single biggest mess utah has ever made. salt lake has got to be one of the easiest cities in the u.s. to navigate. it all runs north/south east/west. if you have coordinates like 60th south and 20th east, its incredibly easy to find. plus the massive mountains make things easier too, they all run north and south (trust me, when you dont have those mountains things are actually harder).
If we're talking markets, population is butts in the seats and TV ratings is butts in front of the TV set. I don't see SLC producing much for TV. No offense inteded. And as the NFL has shown, there's more to revenue for the league and the teams than those kind of numbers.
nobody can honestly make that assumption right now. it all depends on how well the team performs. if they are your typical expansion franchise that struggles for a couple years, then yes they will have lower tv ratings and attendance at games. if they do well the first year then expect higher tv ratings and attendance. if the blitzz are any indication of how people accept soccer in this state than im not worried what so ever that this team will do well. as checkets said, if we get a SSS than the team is probably here for good.
The one thing about SLC, the team has a built in TV network. Checketts owns SportsWest (A pretty big, and broad company out here), and they have the MLS rights for Salt Lake, and, will be involved.
From that link to the map: Purchase ticket before boarding train. Proof of payment is required What, having the ticket isn't proof enough?
who do you think you're kidding. Two of the three lanes (or worse) are closed for construction every day. I go from Alpine to the Airport each day for work and it takes me at the very minimum 45 min. Provo is still at least 15 minutes south of Alpine. Maybe these facts will fly when all the construction is finished, but from my experience that will never happen. It's been non-stop construction since 1996 or earlier. They only shut down construction long enough to have the olympics, then went right back to it.
A little jaded are we? They're extending the carpool lane, it's scheduled to be completed this fall. The only time that commute is 45 minutes is during rush hour. Perhaps if you work near the Airport you should move out of the Zion Curtain to a place that's part of the US
The Grizzlies drew almost 6,000 fans per game, while the Stingers drew 7,000 last year. The Utah Warriors (Indoor Football) drew 6,500 per game. Both teams were some of the worst we've ever had, not even close to competing for anything. The Grizzlies were in the top 10 in the AHL in attendance (Out of 30 teams). The Stingers draw more than the PCL average....baseball attendance fluctates tremendously. The games are close to sellouts on the weekend, but, with a 72 game schedule, weeknight games are much lighter. One thing that will benefit the new MLS team is the shorter schedule, less games for people to committ to. You figure the 'big time' sports here are college football and the NBA. Utah and BYU combined averaged over 100,000 fans per game last year, and the Jazz still pulled in 16,000+.
Jazz actually averaged 19,150sh. for rokstedy...the ticket is your proof of purchase, its the only thing you get when you put money in the machine. and yes it does take 45 minutes or more to drive from provo to salt lake on any given day/night. 30 would be if your doing 80 mph with little traffic. same goes for ogden.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/attendance?year=2004 The Jazz were actually 5th in the league in attendance last year. That's not bad for such a "small market". There are quite a few larger markets that are below the Jazz. I hope we see something similar with the MLS.
It takes me 45 mins from Provo to SLC airport.. northbound hardly ever sees traffic except in the morning.. actually right around Orem/Lindon bend is always bad.. anyhoo, it isn't far..
TRAX doesn't have any gates or turnstiles. You walk up to the station, buy a ticket (you can buy a one-way ticket good for 2 hours or buy an all-day ticket) then get on the train when it comes. Buying tickets is on the honor system. Riders can simply walk on without purchasing a ticket but occasionally a TRAX official will walk through the train asking riders to show their tickets to him. Those without a valid ticket (which are stamped with the date, time of purchase and indicate one way or all day) or a valid monthly pass are fined. Inspections are quite rare, I can't remember being checked more than once or twice since it opened.
I guess I misunderstood or it was written odd. If you have a ticket, one would assume you've paid for it already. Now if the official checks the timestamp and see it's not valid, then you didn't. So semantics aside, as long as you have a valid ticket, you're okay. This is something I want to take when I plan to see the Galaxy play at SLC.
Well, part of the reason it's written the way it is is due to passes. I work for the University of Utah, we all get a transit pass as part of our job. That pass is our 'proof of payment', rather than a ticket bought at a machine. You can also use a bus transfer for a one way trip on a TRAX train, and, if you buy an all day TRAX ticket, you can use it on TRAX, and any bus, for that day. UTA Police do check tickets, and, write citations if people are trying to use old tickets, old passes etc, that's why it's written the way it is..they want to make sure you have proof that your fare is valid, not that you just have some old ticket.
