Charlie Monfort said Salt Lake City is ‘a baseball town,’ adding that he’ll do what he can ‘on the inside’ to bring Major League Baseball to Utah
Jeff Call | Apr 24, 2023
Charlie Monfort recalls attending baseball games at Derks Field, home of the erstwhile Salt Lake Gulls, the Triple-A affiliate of the then-California Angels, decades ago.
The 1982 University of Utah graduate is one of the primary owners of Major League Baseball’s Colorado Rockies.
Monfort enthusiastically supports the Larry H. Miller Company’s bid to bring an MLB franchise to Salt Lake City. He addressed the topic while attending the launch of the Crimson Collective last Friday at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
“I would love for nothing more to see a team here in Salt Lake City,” Monfort said. “It’s a baseball town.”
During his remarks, Monfort said in 1911, there was a baseball team called the Salt Lake City Skyscrapers. “I don’t know about that name,” he said.
If an MLB franchise comes to SLC, Monfort would like to see the city choose a historic moniker for the team.
“I’d like to see the Gulls because Gulls are tough and without the Gulls, I don’t think this town would have survived back in the day,” he said, referring to the legend that California seagulls saved the crops of early settlers of the Salt Lake Valley from crickets.
Larry H. Miller, who died in 2009, became the owner of the Utah Jazz. He bought the Triple-A Salt Lake Stingers in 2005 and later Miller changed the name to the Salt Lake Bees. The Larry H. Miller Company has put together a coalition of stakeholders to bring an MLB franchise to Salt Lake City and identified the site for a stadium.
Monfort is a big fan of the idea of the MLB coming to Salt Lake City — and a return of the Gulls.
“That would be great for all of us,” he said. “I’m going to do my part on the inside.”
