Why the Pac-12 gymnastics championships are still held at the Maverik Center

Unfair.

That, or something similar, is the refrain of many women’s college gymnastics fans when they learn that the Pac-12 gymnastics championships are once again being held at the Maverik Center in West Valley City, Utah.

They feel that way for varied reasons. Many of them are understandable.

For one, Utah gymnastics gets to count meets held at the Maverik Center as road meets — crucial when determining national qualifying score, which affects postseason seeding — despite the arena being a mere 23-minute drive away from the Red Rocks’ practice facility on the campus of the University of Utah.

The Maverik Center has become a home away from home for Utah gymnasts over the years. The team has competed two meets there already this season, and the conference championships will be the third. Yet the Red Rocks get to count it as an away meet, without facing the rigors of travel and unfamiliar equipment.

Additionally, because of its location, the Maverik Center attracts thousands upon thousands of Utah fans. With a capacity of 12,000, the Maverik Center has at times morphed into something of a Huntsman Center-lite, and some Utah gymnasts have even contended over the years that the arena actually is louder than the one at the University of Utah.

As such, it can seem unfair that Cal, UCLA, Oregon State, Arizona State, Arizona, Stanford and Washington have to compete year after year in a hostile environment, while Utah gets all the benefits of competing at home, without technically being at home.

There are reasons the Pac-12 championships are held at the Maverik Center, though.

First announced by then-conference commissioner Larry Scott in the middle of October 2018, the Pac-12 moved its gymnastics championships to West Valley City because the conference’s coaches wanted a postseason meet on podium.

Since the NCAA national championships are competed on podium every year, Pac-12 coaches wanted their teams to become familiar with the bouncier, less stable equipment that comes with competing on a podium. And they wanted to do so in a meet featuring many teams and four judges on every event, an attempt to mirror — as closely as possible — the NCAA championships.

The original arrangement was only for three years — 2019, 2020 and 2021 — but the Pac-12 championships have since been held at the Maverik Center in 2022, 2023 and soon to be 2024.

When Scott first announced the move to the Maverik Center, he wouldn’t reveal what other venues were in the running, noting only that the Maverik Center was chosen as the best option at the time.

Per Utah head coach Carly Dockendorf, there has since been “a lot of discussion” about moving the conference championships to a different venue and that other programs have had the opportunity to bid/host.

“But it takes a lot,” she said. “You have to have money, you have to have space and you have to have a podium. And then you have to have people that want to come and fill the stands.”

That last point, Dockendorf said, plays a bigger role in why the Pac-12 championships are held in Utah than many might think.

“I think they always talk about the student athlete experience and you have a packed arena (at the Maverik Center). That is part of the student athlete experience, to have a full arena when you are competing at the Pac-12 championships. ... Obviously, we have a lot of Red Rock fans there, I do think for all of the student athletes it is a great environment to be in. It is so energized, it is packed and there is not an empty seat in the house,” she said.

Utah has dominated the Pac-12 championships in recent years, but its success has largely mirrored regular season success.

In 2019, UCLA was one of the best teams in the country and the Bruins won the championship at the Maverik Center, while Utah finished second overall.

In 2021, 2022 and 2023, Utah was largely considered the best team — or at the level of the top seed — as reflected by shares of the regular season conference title.

This season, No. 2 Cal is far and away the favorite to win the Pac-12 championships by finishing ahead of fellow evening session participants Utah, UCLA and Oregon State.

As for where the Big 12 gymnastics championships will be held starting next year, with Utah, Arizona and Arizona State joining the league and Oklahoma leaving for the SEC, a Big 12 spokesman told the Deseret News in February, “There are changes for next year’s season that are still being worked on, but we should be announcing information about the 2025 championship in the next few months.”