Smith's Ballpark

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(Redirected from Franklin Covey Field)

  • Name: Smith's Ballpark
  • GPS-able Address: 77 West 1300 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84115
  • Ballpark Owner: City of Salt Lake City
  • Architects: HOK Sport (now Populous); Valentiner, Crane, Brunjes & Onyon
  • Groundbreaking: 5/19/1993
  • Minor League Baseball/Professional Development League Teams: Salt Lake Bees (AAA) 2006-present; Salt Lake Stingers (AAA) 2001-2005; Salt Lake Buzz (AAA) 1994-2000
  • Pro Baseball Class/League History: AAA/Pacific Coast League 2022-present; AAA/Triple-A West 2021; AAA/Pacific Coast League 1994-2020
  • First Pro Baseball Game: 4/11/1994; stadium debut of Class AAA Buzz
  • Others Playing or Operating Here: University of Utah Utes
  • Previous Ballpark Names: Spring Mobile Ballpark 2009-2014; Franklin Covey Field 1997-2008; Franklin Quest Field 1994-1997
  • LF: 345 CF: 420 RF: 315
  • Seats: 12,000
  • Stated Capacity: 14,511
  • House Baseball/Softball Record Attendance (as currently configured): 16,531, 7/22/2000


Smith's Ballpark in Salt Lake City, UT, is the home of the Salt Lake Bees, the Los Angeles Angels' Triple-A Pacific Coast League farm team. On January 17, 2023, however, it became a two-season lame duck.

This Salt Lake City franchise has never used "City" in its locale name, and on that date Bees ownership - the Larry H. Miller Co. - announced it will move the club to a suburb. The current lease expires after the 2024 season, and LMH says it will build a privately financed playpen in the South Jordan, UT, planned-development community of Daybreak - nearly 20 miles south.[1]

Three months later, the company dropped the other baseball: On April 12th, LHM announced it is spearheading an effort to bring Major League Baseball to Salt Lake City itself.

The first move, of the Bees, was all but outed more than four months earlier when some Utahns connected some dots.[2] Nearing the end of its third decade, Smith's is at a point that many ballparks need renovation or replacement, and MLB likely exacerbated that by including new standards in its 2021 Minor League Reorganization. Just weeks into the ensuing season, the Miller Company bought 1,300 acres of undeveloped land in Daybreak.

Smith's - then Franklin Covey Field - kept baseball downtown in 1994 as the same-site replacement of Derks Field - which had stood on the same spot since 1915. The HOK Sport (now Populous)-designed stadium lured the Portland Beavers south, early in HOK's rise as a renowned ballpark architect. In the heart of Utah's capital - less than three miles from both the Mormon Tabernacle and the world's leading genealogy center, and less than 15 from Great Salt Lake - its view of the Wasatch Mountains is one of the best backdrops in professional baseball. Leading the PCL in attendance its first five seasons, the playpen's ball club drew its 10 millionth fan to a Salt Lake City professional baseball game in 2013 - faster than any previous PCL team, but later improved upon by the Memphis Redbirds.

Smith's Food and Drug, Kroger's western-U.S. subsidiary, is the ballpark's fourth naming-rights sponsor.

800px-FranklinCoveyFieldSat.png
Front of the stadium with a safe driving display.


Current ballparks in the Pacific Coast League
East Division West Division
Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark | Constellation Field | Dell Diamond | Isotopes Park | Southwest University Park Cheney Stadium | Greater Nevada Field | Las Vegas Ballpark | Smith's Ballpark | Sutter Health Park