Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts will tour potential sites for a new spring training facility in the Phoenix-area today, after being wooed by business and government officials on Tuesday.
According to a report in the East Valley Tribune, Sen. John McCain gave a videotaped pitch to Ricketts to try and convince the Cubs to stay in Arizona. McCain wished the Cubs a World Series victory and, with a comically-timed cough, adding that their fans would probably appreciate that.
The Cubs are considering moving their spring training home from Mesa to Naples, Fla., which has a plan in place to build a mini Wrigley Field which seats 15,000. A little over a month ago, it seemed like a slam-dunk that the Cubs would stay in Arizona, albeit in a new facility.
But Ricketts said he's seriously considering all his options. After touring sites in Naples last month, Ricketts will now see first-hand what Arizona has to offer before making his decision on the Cubs lease at HoHoKam Park early in 2010. The team has an escape clause that allows them to buy out their lease by next spring and leave after 2011, but the Cubs can also opt out and still negotiate with Florida and Arizona for a new site well into next year.
General manager Jim Hendry, in Mesa for the Cubs' organizational meetings, declined to say whether his personal preference was to stay in Arizona, where they are easily the biggest draw in the Valley.
"We've had a great relationship with the city of Mesa for years," Hendry said. "But, that being said, our facilities need to be upgraded in a high fashion. I think, as the owner, Tom certainly has the obligation to look at other options and at the end of the day that will be his decision, as it should be. You're talking about a tremendous amount of money to build a new place and go forward in the modern era.
"Spring training facilities now have become a 12-month operation. You have rehabilitation guys in the off-season, the Rookie Leagues, the Instructional Leagues, and you've got the (Arizona) Fall League to worry about. There are a lot of things you need to be proactive in.
"It's much different than in the old days. You're talking about a high investment for a city to make a top-of-the-line facility. The average person thinks 'Gee, what's the big deal. it's only a two-month thing.' But I'm from the school now that what you do the other 9-10 months (outside of spring training) is more important than what actually happens on spring training game days.
"We have 200 players now in our organization, not counting our major league roster, so all those things need to be factored in. Tom is doing the right thing. He's going to look at all the possibilities and not commit to one place on the first week on the job."
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This is something that every team does. They're posturing so as to get public funds to upgrade or construct new team facilities.
Read the press releases on the Ricketts family Mr. Skeptical, this is now their primary business as a family. They haven't had a controlling stake in TD Ameritrade in quite some time. This team is going to be what they are all about according to their own statements. I haven't read personal bio's but they all seem to all have MBA's and at the very least, Tom Ricketts is a U of C GSB alum.
They are more than qualified to over see and run the day to day operations side of the business.
Why is Ricketts messing around with this? Doesn't he know how to delegate? What does he know about choosing spring training sites that the real baseball people don't know? Or is this a fateful portent of things to come for the Cubs?
I won't dispute you, Northside Neuman, but if this is a tax thing, is the Cubs ownership a tax thing for Ricketts? If so, let's leave now.
They won't leave AZ. This is all about recieving tax dollars to fund a new facility. You don't leave the area that allows you the highest attendence in all of baseball during spring training every single year.
Before Cub faithful think that they will never leave Mesa or AZ because of the rich history, there is this to consider: Dodgers--Vero Beach 50 years--Glendale.