It's a fact. There are plenty (like a million) Little League teams that play baseball, softball, and soccer. There are competitive teams and leagues, which are almost as numerous. Finally, there's a host of recreation leagues that run year round.
Davis has all the fringe sports like judo, cheerleading, fishing, archery etc. Yes, I called them fringeÖdeal with it, they just don't have widespread popularity.
So if you look at that list of sports, high school sports are king. They draw the biggest crowds, bring in the most cash, and yes, get the most play in the paper. They have their own fields and stadiums that are getting much more advanced these days with artificial turf, elaborate sound systems and large press boxes.
High school sports simply demand most of the attention from the majority in the community.
I think it's time they had some healthy competition.
Davis County needs a professional or semi-pro sports team. Even a college teamÖor something, please.
It's time to put ourselves on the sports map and by sending in our bid for a team we can rally around collectively.
I think the plan is simple. It's the James Earl Jones theoryÖif we build it, they will come. If we can throw up a state-of-the-art sporting edifice, the sports teams will come flocking. And so will the people and the visitors, not to mention a healthy economy boost and such.
If we are going to vote and raise taxes a tenth of a cent for a regional arts theater, we better have a stadium on the ballot pretty dang soon. What's another tenth of a cent anyway? I didn't even know there was a tenth of a cent. How do you get change on that?
But what sports should we go after? The NFL is not going to fly here. We don't have enough people who will to go to Sunday games. Major League Baseball probably wouldn't come either; they would probably consider Salt Lake City before us.
We might be able to coax Dave Checketts to bring his soccer team here with all the trouble he's had with our neighboring county, Salt Lake. Imagine if we built a soccer specific stadium for Real Salt Lake. Let's get it finished before Sandy gets theirs done. We can do it. They're just one city. We have like 10 cities in our county.
What about building a stadium that's specific for arena football? That's feasible. Energy Solutions Arena doesn't have the greatest sight lines for arena football. The Blaze would be happy to move here. They've always wanted a stronger connection in the Davis County market.
I think the NBADL would be a nice addition to the county. Basketball is big around here and the developmental league has a family friendly product. Unfortunately we missed the boat on that one, now that Orem has the Utah Flash, the future farm team for the Utah Jazz.
Couldn't we at least muster up a college team? We could build a stadium for the DATC, couldn't we? We could call them the DATC Techies or possibly the DATC Apprentices. Okay, maybe that's a little far-fetched.
Even a PGA golf tourney on one of the premier county courses would be nice. What about a world-class tennis tournament? We could build a tennis complex on Antelope Island and call it the Buffalo Cup or the Brine Classic. Now, I'm starting to stretch.
For now we'll just have to dream. In the meantime, I guess we will continue to travel to other counties that have placed a higher priority on big time sports.
As for what you'll read on these pages, high school sports will continue to dominate the coverage. Unless we start covering chess matches.
thatch@davisclipper.com
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