Is Utah a Good Fit for the Nfl?

Is Utah a Good Fit for the NFL?

Utah has been a major player in the sports world ever since the Utah Jazz moved to Salt Lake City in 1979 (Dixon 22). Utah has since added a professional soccer team and hosted the Olympics in 2002. Utah is a good fit for a new NFL franchise because of a sufficient population to support a team, great local businesses to sponsor a team, and a fan base that is passionate about their local sports.

According to the US Census Bureau, Utah has a population of 2,817,222 people. Of these people over one million live in Salt Lake County alone with most of the population within thirty miles of Salt Lake City. Two examples of teams with smaller communities where NFL teams are able to thrive without a very large population are Buffalo and Green Bay. Buffalo, home of the NFL's Bills only has a population of 261,000 and supports the Bills with great numbers and passion. Green Bay has a population of just 100,000 and also has a successful NFL team in the Packers. In fact cities like L.A. had NFL teams in the past and lost them to smaller cities where the fans were more likely to support and attend games. Tainsky and Stodolska also conclude that NFL teams don't only migrate to cities with large populations, but more for cities that will support the team (803). The determining factor for success in NFL cities is certainly not the population size and has proven to be able to thrive in smaller cities than even Salt Lake City.

Thomaseli suggests that the NFL is continually looking to grow not only its national sponsorships; it is looking to grow local business participation as well. Cities like Salt Lake City do a lot in order to help small, startup businesses succeed. Bized specifically mentions the Business school at the University of Utah as an area where small businesses are helped through training and development as they are beginning (33). Utah is a state that prides itself on business development and growth. Utah has several examples of small business expanding outside of Utah, like Café Rio, Overstock.com, and Xango, it has great incentives that bring large companies to Utah as well. One such incentive that can be found in the 2012 Annual Report and Business Resource Guide is Economic Development Tax Increment Financing, where a post-performance, refundable tax credit for up to 30% of new state revenues (sales taxes, corporate taxes and withholding taxes paid to the state) over the life of the project (typically 5 to 10 years) is available to companies seeking relocation and expansion of operations to the State of Utah (21-35). As Nicholls, Roselow, and Dublish point out, corporate sponsors not only help to support a franchise, they also reap the benefits of the exposure and advertising while doing so (6-21). Utah is not only growing in terms of population, it is also seeing great growth in the business sector. The University of Utah's business