The Triple Crown tournament has been a summer staple in Park City since 2003. Although the 2020 edition of the tournament was cancelled thanks to COVID-19, it made a return to Park City this summer.
This is also the last year of its contract with the city. Last Thursday, the city council indicated that it is not interested in having the tournament back in 2022.
Triple Crown has regularly brought several thousand visitors to the area over the course of the two-week tournament in late July, and has traditionally been responsible for a sizable amount of revenue for local businesses during a typically slow part of the year. The tournament has averaged $2.8 million dollars in total economic impact over the past four years the tournament has been held, according to a city report.
Despite the economic boost, many city councilors have repeatedly expressed their desire to scale back city events in the future, citing feedback from residents concerned about ever-growing traffic and crowds diminishing the small-town feel of Park City. Eliminating the Triple Crown tournament is seen by some as one way to help ease some of that tension.
Councilor Max Doilney does not see the situation that way and has fiercely defended the tournament as a vital boost to some of the city’s smallest businesses. He continued that defense last week and argued that the city’s traffic and crowding problems won’t be solved by eliminating Triple Crown.
“I know that Park City’s busy all the time," he said. "I get it, but are we really saying that Triple Crown is our traffic problem? I call BS on that. 100% BS. Every day in town is busy. Triple Crown is not the difference for traffic in July. Give me a break. This year, July was 7% down from our busiest month ever, so to blame that on Triple Crown, or to make that the case, I just think that falls on deaf ears for me.”
Doilney was countered by Councilor Steve Joyce, who cited the city’s recent record-setting economic numbers as an indication that businesses aren't going to suffer if the tournament doesn’t return.
He said this in response to the argument that local businesses rely on the tournament’s influx of visitors to survive:
“I’m sorry, I don’t want to hear about [how businesses] really desperately need the business," Joyce said. "Every place is full right now and if it’s not, you’re doing something wrong because everybody’s breaking records. The people I’m hearing from are the residents who are going, ‘I thought you guys said council was doing something about controlling these crowds and that you guys were taking the residents seriously and you cared about our quality of life.’ Our constituents feel absolutely overloaded right now and they want us to do more of this.”
With the exception of written comments from a few local businesses, no one from the public spoke up to support or oppose the tournament on Thursday. Councilor Becca Gerber said the silence “spoke louder than words” and added that it indicated not moving forward with the tournament is the right call. She said If the council were looking at eliminating a different event, like the Kimball Arts Festival, council chambers would be packed with members of the public ready to defend it.
Triple Crown organizer Matt Pilcher spoke briefly during the meeting, thanking the city for its history of hosting the tournament and expressing a desire to return in the future, although he added “you guys are gonna do what you gotta do.”
Pilcher also indicated that the tournament would search for an alternate location, possibly in Summit County, if Park City formally declines to renew Triple Crown’s contract.
Pilcher told KPCW that Triple Crown has been preparing to find new locations for the tournament and is close to finalizing where it might be held in the future. He added:
"I'm not sure Park City knows what it wants to be right now, but hopefully they will figure it out. Regardless, Triple Crown Sports will be fine, Park City will be fine, and the world will keep on turning. Thank you Park City for always being a great host."
If the tournament is held in the greater Summit County area, the crowds would likely return, at least in part, to Park City.
Gerber told KPCW that if Triple Crown does reach out to Summit County about hosting in the future, the city would try to convey why it declined to bring the tournament back.
“I think we’re gonna have to work very closely with our partners, work with the chamber, and work with the county and talk about how this event has really impacted our community and make sure that if something like that happens, that they’re aware of the reasons what we decided not to bring the event back into Park City and hope that we can find some ways to work together to continue to reduce traffic impacts and not just that feeling of always having so much going on in Park City all the time,” she said.
Although all councilors but Doilney indicated they did not want the tournament to return, the council will have to formally vote on the decision during a future council meeting. Triple Crown’s current contract with the city expires on November 30th.
