The university has been evaluating possible locations for a new ballpark on campus for nearly a decade and has looked at eight potential sites. A study in 2019 narrowed the sites down to five, including locations on central campus, south campus, the university’s West Village and two locations on Guardsman Way.

While the first choice was the central campus location, that site was selected as the home for the U’s new Impact & Prosperity Epicenter living-learning facility which will open in 2024. Ultimately, the location of the team’s current practice facility on Guardsman Way was determined to be the next best site.

Factors that the planning team considered included:

• Compatibility with ongoing campus planning and growth
• Meeting student housing needs
• Preserving an exceptional student experience
• Site buildability (not requiring extensive relocation of existing facilities)
• Proximity to parking in campus lots immediately north of the stadium
• Access to other Utah Athletics facilities
• Visibility
• Access to public transit

The University planning team wants to create a vibrant stadium with minimal neighborhood impacts. Here's how we'll address the needs of the community.

Safety – Netting will be installed to contain foul balls, just as it is currently in place along the right field line of the team’s practice field on Guardsman Way.

Noise — New berms at the outfield will help contain noise. A modern, distributed audio system will focus sound into the stadium.

Field Lighting — Lighting will be designed in a way that reduces spill beyond the stadium.

Traffic and Parking — Games will generally occur at low-traffic times on evenings and weekends. Parking will be available at two adjacent campus lots immediately north of the stadium site: Guardsman Way (869 Stalls) and Rice-Eccles Stadium (1,196 Stalls)

This idea was considered and certainly has merits. However, after careful consideration, the merits of having the team on campus outweighed the advantages of sharing space at a location nearly 30 miles from the university. In its proposed location, the baseball team will be close to other shared athletics’ training and education facilities.

There wasn’t an option to buy the facility. While sharing the facility with a minor league baseball team was an effective use of Smith’s Ballpark, ultimately the space was larger than the university would have needed on its own. Smith’s Ballpark has 14,511 seats. On average, University of Utah baseball games currently draw 350 spectators.