SALT LAKE CITY – “Opportunity” – it’s a word we’ve been hearing a lot recently as Utah lures professional sports teams and hopes to host another Olympics.

To accommodate those dreams, a sports and entertainment district will soon transform downtown Salt Lake City. And training facilities could reshape other communities across the state. Taxpayers will help foot the bill for the downtown transformation, to the tune of nearly a billion dollars over 30 years.

And lawmakers paved the way for a similar deal for an MLB stadium.

The long-term investment has many excited for Utah’s sports surge, including Shannon Bahrke, a two-time Olympic medalist who made Utah her home after the 2002 games.

“I mean, there’s so many reasons that I clap for that,” Bahrke said of the growth in sports. “But I think for me it’s all about the kids,” she said. Bahrke is looking to the future and opportunities for her own children.

“Oh my gosh, we just got the Royals, a women’s professional soccer team,” she said, cheering out loud with excitement. “Like my daughter can know what’s possible.”

Orson Colby has already benefited from access to training facilities close to home, a result of Utah’s first Olympic spotlight.

“I’m very grateful,” said the national youth luge champion from Riverton.

“They always say it takes 10,000 hours to get good at something,” he said. “People from the East Coast would only go for a two-week camp to train [in Lake Placid]… versus where I’m only like a 40-minute drive to Park City. And I think that’s been like a lot more help for my growth.”

The State of Sport

Jeff Robbins, President of the Utah Sports Commission, says the surge is not an overnight phenomenon.

“All the great things that you’re seeing take place right now are an effort that took place for over 20 years,” he said – efforts which began on the heels of the 2002 Winter Games.

The commission was created to attract sporting events of all kinds to our state.

Their favorite slogan: “The State of Sport.”

And that vision goes beyond NHL, NBA, Major League Soccer, or the Olympics. His office promotes a diversity of sports.

“We’ve got the premier lacrosse league that a lot of people don’t know about,” Robbins said.

And 45 cities across the state have hosted major events, including the Ironman in St. George, Red Bull Rampage in Virgin, AMA Supercross, Tony Hawk’s Vert Alert, and now the Black Diamonds of Major League Pickleball.

Mike Headrick spoke with Jeff Robbins, the president & CEO of the Utah Sports Commission, which was created to attract sporting events to the state. (Ken Fall, KSL TV)

“Almost 1,100 hundred events that we’ve partnered on since. About $4 billion in economic impact, and probably not far off $4 billion in global media value,” he said.

And Robbins wants folks to remember what arrived in June 1979.

“The Jazz. And I don’t think anybody would argue that hasn’t been incredibly good for Utah,” he said.

Olympic legacy

“Every one of our venues is in incredibly high use today. And most of it’s with our kids,” said Fraser Bullock, President & CEO of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games.

Bullock played a big role in the 2002 Olympics and expects another Winter Games here in the future.

He says the introduction of new sports in our state will start the pipeline of future athletes.

“We had the Youth Sports Alliance in Park City, which was born out of the games, and now we have thousands of kids who have gone through this pipeline of winter sport.”

The venues built for the 2002 games still attract world cup events and athletes from around the globe. Bullock said over 30% of the athletes who competed in the 2022 Beijing Winter Games live and train in Utah.

“When I see the NHL coming here, I’m thinking, ‘Think of all the ice sheets that are going to get built and all the kids that are going to start playing hockey.’”

Economically, he believes the benefit to the community is worth it. And he says fiscal responsibility was the keystone of a successful games in 2002.

“We did borrow a little bit at the beginning, $59 million dollars, which we paid back,” he said about the 2002 Winter Games. “We left behind a $76 million dollar endowment to fund the operation of those venues.”

That endowment was meant to last 20 years. Since that time, the state has had to step in. Over the past six years, the Utah Legislature has appropriated more than $94 million dollars to renovate and maintain the facilities. That number is expected to rise more than $140 million.

“For 2034, our objective is to leave behind a much larger endowment, so that that could fund everything – operations and maintenance – and the state wouldn’t have to put in any more money,” said Bullock.

But Bullock recognizes the big-league growth in Utah comes with big-league pressures.

“That’s why we need a comprehensive solution on housing, and more housing and transportation infrastructure to support a lot of people,” he said.

A positive for everyone?

“Just because you can grow, the question is: ‘Should you?’” asks Jason Godfrey, the CEO of Better City, an Ogden-based company which advises cities around the country on economic development, strategic planning, and growth.

Here in Utah, Better City has worked with communities from Brigham City to Tooele to Cedar City. It finished a major strategic study for the Wasatch Front Regional Council, and highlighted what it calls one of Utah’s weaknesses: reactive decision-making. According to the study, “Communities across the Region… are pushed to make decisions based on immediate or emerging circumstances, often driven by short-term considerations and goals.”

Godfrey believes Utah should get a gold medal for certain aspects of planning, like transportation, business growth and population projections.

However, “There’s a little bit of a blind spot when it comes to planning and looking at quality of life things,” he said.

Godfrey sees major concerns with cost of living, housing, and quality of life.

“Recreation, amenities, quality of life. That’s what dominates. You know, people really do want to have a good quality of life,” he said. “Is this going to be a net positive for everyone?”

Sports as a unifying force

Still, most in this widening state of sports welcome the growth and opportunity with their fingers crossed.

Bullock stressed success will be the result of a team effort, saying, “It takes not only the Ryan Smith and the Miller family, combined with the more limited corporate sponsorships we have

here, but also with the public, the Legislature, to put all the pieces together to make it work. And so, everybody in a community effort has to come together.”

“Time will tell how much return on investment we get,” said Robbins.

Bahrke, however, has no reservations.

“We can just do so much here and allowing that to flourish. I’m just so thankful,” said Bahrke. “Go Utah!” she cheered with her arms in the air.

Keyonte George has been named to the NBA All-Rookie Second Team, the league announced Monday.

The Utah Jazz guard was selected 16th overall by the Jazz in the 2023 draft and started 44 of the 75 games he appeared in during the season. He averaged 13 points, 4.4 assists and 2.8 rebounds, and was the only rookie to total more than 950 points while also dishing out more than 325 assists during the 2023-24 campaign.

Rookie of the Year Victor Wembanyama (San Antonio Spurs) earned All-Rookie First Team honors alongside Chet Holmgren (Oklahoma City Thunder), Brandon Miller (Charlotte Hornets), Jaime Jaquez Jr. (Miami Heat) and Brandin Podziemski (Golden State Warriors).

George was joined on the All-Rookie Second Team by Dereck Lively II (Dallas Mavericks), GG Jackson II (Memphis Grizzlies), Amen Thompson (Houston Rockets) and Cason Wallace (OKC).

At the beginning of the 2023-24 season, it wasn’t clear how George would factor into the Jazz’s roster with a number of guards vying for rotation minutes. But it quickly became clear that George was more skilled and NBA-ready than expected and he earned a starting role eight games into the season.

After a minor foot injury sidelined him for a couple of weeks in December, George came back and played off the bench until he took over starting point guard duties Feb. 12; he averaged 15.8 points per game over the final 28 games of the season. The 20-year-old was also named to the NBA’s Rising Stars team during All-Star Weekend.

George received three All-Rookie First Team votes and 71 Second Team votes from the pool of reporters and broadcasters who vote on end-of-season awards.

Kyle Dunphey

(Utah News Dispatch) Utah’s reservoirs are still at what the state calls “impressive” levels, with most hovering around 90% capacity — by comparison, statewide levels were a little over half full this time last year.

But Lake Powell, the country’s second-largest reservoir, is an outlier. According to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, it’s currently at about 35% capacity.

During a Legislative Water Development Commission meeting in Salt Lake City last week, director of the Utah Division of Water Resources Candice Hasenyager gave lawmakers an update on the state’s water outlook.

“Our reservoirs are about full, we’re at about 90% of our statewide average,” she said. But, she noted Lake Powell as a glaring exception.

“That’s still definitely a concern that we have,” Hasenyager told lawmakers.

In a statement, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said Lake Powell should not be compared to other reservoirs in the state because of its size and the various policies that dictate its levels.

“Lake Powell is substantially larger, with a live capacity of nearly 25 million acre-feet,” a spokesperson for the bureau said. “This capacity is more than eight times the capacity of Strawberry Reservoir.”

Those levels are often out of the state’s control, and are in part due to the complexity of the Colorado River Basin and the system that allocates water to seven states and Mexico, called the Colorado River Compact.

Through the compact, the bureau “has modified the operating guidelines for Glen Canyon and Hoover dams through 2026, to protect these facilities and lake levels if poor hydrologic conditions persist,” the spokesperson said.

Despite Lake Powell appearing to be far behind Utah’s other reservoirs in terms of capacity, the bureau noted that the situation is much better than last year — currently, it sits at about 24 feet higher than last May, and officials say levels will continue to rise, expected to hit about 41% capacity in June. After that, the bureau said it will decline until spring runoff in 2025.

Still, the state’s lack of control over Lake Powell drew some disapproval from outgoing Rep. Phil Lyman, R-Blanding, who is currently running for governor. Lyman, a fierce critic of the federal government’s presence in Utah, lamented the levels being “set by the Secretary of the Interior.”

“Are we working with the Secretary of the Interior, are we working with the federal government to keep that at a viable level?” Lyman asked. “What we’ve really seen is intentional, keeping that below a viable recreation level and I hope the legislature can influence that decision in the future.”

In response to Lyman’s comments, the Bureau of Reclamation pointed to the bevy of compacts, federal laws, court decisions, contracts and regulatory guidelines that control flows in the Colorado River and levels at Lake Powell.

“Reclamation has a long-standing history of working with all stakeholders in the basin on cooperative agreements that help define operational actions at critical times and to protect the levels at Lake Powell and sustain and protect the Colorado River Basin,” the bureau said.

When asked about Lyman’s comments, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox responded, “I have no idea what he’s talking about.”

“People can make up stuff all they want. Nobody is deliberately keeping the water levels low at Lake Powell,” the governor said during his monthly PBS news conference on Thursday, calling his gubernatorial opponent’s claim “bonkers.”

Cox pointed to ongoing negotiations among water managers from Colorado River basin states who are working on a new management plan ahead of 2026, when the current guidelines expire.

Cox told reporters the state has been releasing its own water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir to ensure the Glen Canyon Dam at Lake Powell can continue generating power. Some of that water was released to Lake Mead, he said — now, the state is hoping to get that water back.

“There are big discussions about where that water goes and where our portions of the water go. We’ve had huge releases from upstream reservoirs that have gone into Lake Powell,” Cox said. “That’s mostly our water. …These are very, very complex negotiations that are going back and forth, and part of the negotiations and what we’re doing right now is making sure we can restore the water that we released.”

‘Exactly what we need’

On Thursday, the Division of Water Resources said over half of the snow from this winter has melted, with recent weather patterns resulting in “optimal spring runoff.”

“A slow warmup is exactly what we need to have a safe and effective spring runoff,” Hasenyager said in a statement. “We still have a good amount of snow in the mountains, so we are hoping for a gradual snow melt.”