The fair place to meet is Oklahoma City, OK — the city closest to the midpoint of Salt Lake City and Tampa. From the farther side that’s about 21 hr 29 min of driving.
Recommended midpoint
Oklahoma City, OK
From Salt Lake City
18 hr 4 min
861 mi to Oklahoma City
From Tampa
21 hr 29 min
1,025 mi to Oklahoma City
Salt Lake City has the shorter trip; the split is off by about 3 hr 25 min. The alternatives below can even it out. Salt Lake City and Tampa are about 1,885 miles apart.
Salt Lake City and Tampa are about 1,885 miles apart by road. Split the difference and you arrive near Oklahoma City, the city closest to the halfway point between them. That puts roughly 18 hr 4 min of driving on the Salt Lake City side and 21 hr 29 min on the Tampa side — the fairest single meeting point among the cities near the middle.
Over this distance most people will fly rather than drive the whole way. Oklahoma City still makes a fair, central place for Salt Lake City and Tampa to converge, splitting the travel instead of asking one side to cross the country.
If Oklahoma City doesn't have what you're after, Dallas and Austin are also close to the midpoint and worth a look — each keeps the drive reasonably balanced between Salt Lake City and Tampa.
Oklahoma City, often shortened to OKC, is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It is the 21st-most populous U.S. city and 8th largest in the Southern United States, with a population of 681,054 at the 2020 census. Read more →
Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. Read more →
Tampa is a major city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Hillsborough County. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Read more →
City descriptions adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA); photos via Wikimedia Commons, credited above.
Estimates use straight-line distance and typical road speeds; real drive times vary with route and traffic.