Cox signs bills that could fund MLB and NHL stadiums

East views from the Power District, a nearly 100-acre site adjacent to the Utah State Fairpark and the Jordan River. (Courtesy of the Larry H. Miller Company)

A Major League Baseball team hasn’t signed on to call Salt Lake City home, nor has a National Hockey League franchise. But Utah has paved the way to build billion-dollar stadiums to make a strong case to attract more professional sports to the state. 

Gov. Spencer Cox signed both HB562, titled Utah Fairpark Area Investment and Restoration District, and SB272, Capital City Revitalization Zone, on Tuesday afternoon, finalizing the state’s proposals to fund two new stadiums and redevelopment plans for their adjacent areas.

Cox had said in the past he had no appetite to write a check to billionaires to fund stadiums; however, he said during his PBS February monthly news conference, he was open to tax increment financing, weighing in the community and business benefits of building the arenas.

“If you’re going to build a stadium somewhere, there will be benefits to that community. That will attract people, not just people from Utah, but people from outside Utah. It will attract other businesses, it will attract hotels, it will attract restaurants and that economic incentive,” he said in the news conference. “There is an opportunity for us to use the benefit of that to help incentivize a stadium to be built.”

At the time, he referred to funding from an increased hotel room tax that was included in the first version of HB562. But, that option was quickly dismissed amid criticism from Utahns in other areas of the state who said they wouldn’t support a tax increase when they wouldn’t benefit from the ballpark.

HB562, which would fund an MLB stadium in partnership with the Larry H. Miller Company, now relies on the state’s portion of the sales tax within the newly-formed Fairpark Area Investment and Restoration District — located on the west side of Salt Lake City — and a 1.5% tax increase in car rentals to raise up to $900 million to fund part of the arena.

SB272 would create a “revitalization zone” in an area of about 100 acres adjacent to the Delta Center in downtown Salt Lake City, in addition to building a hockey and basketball arena. The state approved giving Salt Lake City the option to approve a 0.5% sales tax increase to gather about $1 billion over 30 years to pitch in on the project sponsored by the Smith Entertainment Group, the owner of the Utah Jazz. 

Both bills have faced criticism from groups who argue the state should apply the same kind of creative funding mechanisms to more pressing issues, such as homelessness. Lawmakers have rejected that notion, stating that the money would be a significant investment in the neighboring communities. 

The post Cox signs bills that could fund MLB and NHL stadiums appeared first on Utah News Dispatch.