MESA, Ariz. -- Commissioner Bud Selig hopes the Cubs stay in Mesa, despite his stated opposition to the proposed 8 percent ticket surcharge for all Cactus League games.
Selig, making his annual rounds of spring training sites, spoke with reporters Sunday in Scottsdale during the Milwaukee-San Francisco game.
"We need to find a solution," Selig said. "We have people working on it. I think we've made some progress. It's a difficult situation. Certainly, everybody wants the Cubs to stay here, including the Cubs."
The Cubs said last week they can build their new spring training complex without revenues from the ticket surcharge, or the "Cubs tax," as it's referred to locally. But the tax is still on the table, despite opposition from Selig and the 14 other Cactus League owners.
Asked about the tax, Selig said: "I've gotten involved in that, too, because I don't want the owners handling it. We just have to find a way to do it. I know how (other club officials) feel about it."
The Cubs are once again leading all Cactus League teams in attendance, averaging 10,460 per game. Selig's former team, the Brewers, also may be looking for a new facility after their lease in Maryvale expires after 2012.
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The Cubs said last week they can build their new spring training complex WITHOUT revenues from the ticket surcharge, or the "Cubs tax," as it's referred to locally.
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So, IF they can pay for it on thier own, why dont they?
oh yeah, becuase they want to MAKE MONEY, not spend it.
We are ALL hopeful the Cubs stay in Arizona. All year, every year.
I feel for the fans in Mesa. Having those politicians (espicially McCain) as your champions is the pits.
I also have a condo in Sarasota. Yankees, Red Sox and Cubs could all be an hour apart driving. With the dirtbag Cardinals 2 hours away?
I'm 66 years old. Come to Florida Tommy where the big boys play and let's get a ring before I get kicked off this planet...
Hey Bud, Arizona has no money!
Raise car taxes?
They're the 2nd highest in the nation (we've got the highest in Chicago).
Cactus League Tax?
Asking the Royals and the Indians to pay for a stadium for a team with the third highest payroll? What?
Arizona Tourism and Sports Authority?
It's Broke after spending $200MM.
Mesa?
Laying off teachers and cops, cutting back on school hours...freaking joke.
State of Arizona?
Just cut budget by $1.1B. Still in deficit. Dropped 40k children off healthcare, 300k adults. Voter outrage.
I don't care what the Cubs do during the Spring- but the team and us fans look like total schmucks right now. Ricketts need to step in and front the money for the stadium in Mesa or say this is the most brutal economy and political climate in the last 100 years and go to Naples.
Enough of this Spring Training STADIUM CRAP!!!!!
Selig wants/hopes only what Reinsdorf tells him to. Let's not forget the heads-in-the-sand attitude for years on the steroids issue solely because baseball was "resurrected" by the massive surge in home runs...and the massive income that went with it. Go back and read Howard Bryant's "Juicing the Game." It's all there.
bdd on March 15, 2010 9:45 AM
Selig is a tool. He does NOTHING about drug usage with the players
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Not true, he forced a resisting players union to go public with their opposition to drug testing which got Congress involved which led to the changes in drug policies and will scare them into the next set of changes also.
Talk about self-serving thieves. Club owners want communities to build them free stadiums from which the owners profit handsomely.
That's a sweet deal.
Has an owner EVER built his own stadium in the modern era?
Selig is a tool. He does NOTHING about drug usage with the players, and if he is so concerned about teams moving, he would have left his team in the American League and left the divisions even with the number of teams in them.
Who cares what Selig wants/hopes. He is a self serving thief!