Relocation talk clouds first full day of Diamondbacks spring training

For Diamondbacks fans, it might have been nice if the first day of full-squad workouts had been characterized only by the crack of the bat, the pop of the mitt and the dawn of a new season, fresh off an unexpected World Series run last year.

To be fair, it was characterized by many of those things.

Fans showed up in droves to watch the Diamondbacks’ full cast of characters prepare themselves for the 2024 season. There were defense drills, live at-bats, the whole shebang. Autographs were signed, pictures taken.

But the biggest story out of Diamondbacks camp on Monday was not Zac Gallen’s first live bullpen session or the line for a Corbin Carroll autograph. Instead, it was about where the Diamondbacks will be playing in the long-term, a saga that has dragged on for several years.

“We’re still working on it,” Diamondbacks President and CEO Derrick Hall told a group of reporters at Salt River Fields. “It’s been a long work in progress, as you know. And we’re at the point now where we’re just trying to figure out the best possible partnership, public-private, that we can have that would keep us at Chase Field.

“There’s still a bit of frustration on my part … we thought we’d be at a position now where we could announce exactly what’s happening. And I think we sat here a year ago saying ‘We gotta know in the next couple of months.’

“We’re to the point where we really have to know.”

Now entering its 27th season as the home of the Diamondbacks, Chase Field is in need of renovations, both in ways that fans would be able to see and in ways that they would not. The team has outlined an all-in plan that would cost between $400 and $500 million to complete over the span of several years, but it is seeking public funding from Maricopa County to assist in the venture.

So far, those efforts to strike a deal with the county have been unsuccessful. And it appears that Diamondbacks managing general partner Ken Kendrick, who was also present at the podium on Monday, could be willing to move the team elsewhere if no such deal comes to fruition.

“There are other cities that would covet having Major League Baseball,” Kendrick said. “They’re prominent cities that would love to have a major-league team. We’re not in dialogue with those communities. But yeah, we are aware of what is going on. There is likely to be in time an expansion of our sport to a couple of additional cities. Cities are letting MLB know their interests.

“They would be happy with a brand new franchise but they would certainly be very happy with, frankly, a successful existing franchise. It’s not where we are spending time or energy. We may run out of time in Phoenix. We hope that won’t happen.”

Ken Kendrick on the possibility of the Diamondbacks leaving Arizona:

"There are opportunities available … It's not where we are spending time or energy. We may run out of time in Phoenix. We hope that won't happen." pic.twitter.com/kQOAk3EfLk

— PHNX Diamondbacks (@PHNX_Dbacks) February 19, 2024

While Kendrick said that the team is not engaging in conversations outside the state and that he would like it to stay in Arizona forever, his tone was different from his last meeting with the media in December, when he dismissed the idea altogether: “That ain’t gonna happen.”

Expansion has been a popular topic in the sport for the past several years, with commissioner Rob Manfred telling reporters last week that he would like to have sites for new teams selected by the time his final term ends in 2029. Potential sites are believed to include Salt Lake City; Charlotte, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; and Portland, Oregon.

The Diamondbacks’ renovation plan includes better amenities for kids and families, revamped club options and infrastructure repairs. Removing seats from the ballpark has been a topic of conversation for some time, but that is not in the plans.

The Milwaukee Brewers reportedly secured $500 million in public funding last November to renovate their ballpark, American Family Field. The Brewers offered up only $150 million. The Baltimore Orioles also unlocked $600 million for ballpark upgrades in a new lease agreement signed in December. The Cleveland Guardians reached a lucrative public-private agreement of their own in 2022.

Kendrick said that he and his partners are willing to invest “hundreds of millions of dollars” into the renovation project, and he referred to those recent public-private deals for the Brewers, Orioles and Guardians as templates for what he would like to see in Arizona.

An Arizona state bill passed in 2021 would allow the Diamondbacks to establish a tax at the ballpark to help fund renovations, but Kendrick said that such an arrangement would not fix the problem and would put the economic burden on fans, which the team would like to avoid.

The possibility of building a new stadium elsewhere in the Phoenix-metro area has been floated for a while, but Kendrick said that the math “just doesn’t work,” given the increased cost that comes with building an air-conditioned facility.

Neither Hall nor Kendrick gave a specific deadline for the team to determine its future stadium arrangements, but urgency seems to be increasing. The Diamondbacks’ lease at Chase Field expires at the end of the 2027 season.

In the meantime, the team did complete some renovations this off-season, including a new sound system and a new LED lighting system. The Diamondbacks have been unable to open the retractable roof at Chase Field with fans in the building since the start of the 2022 season due to a cable issue with the roof; that repair has not yet been completed.

“The roof is in a position where we have learned how to deal with it for now,” Hall said. “We reprioritized and decided we need to fix other experiential elements of the ballpark … You’ll notice. These have been great improvements.”

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Diamondbacks’ TV situation remains unresolved

Since the parent company of Bally Sports Arizona filed for bankruptcy last year, the Diamondbacks have lacked a long-term television rights partner. As of Monday morning, the team did not yet have a TV deal to announce.

“We’re still talking to those interested,” Hall said. “Probably want to have a decision by the end of this week, as we’re in spring training … I don’t think there’s a great sense of urgency other than we would like to televise some spring games. So, we need to know how we’re going to televise it, where people can watch it. But I’m convinced we’ll have something to announce here soon.”

One potential broadcast partner is Major League Baseball, which stepped in to broadcast games last July when Bally Sports Arizona was no longer operational. The D-backs’ CEO applauded the product that MLB produced, but said that the team is still looking at over-the-air options, as well as a potential hybrid. He also mentioned a possible partnership with the Phoenix Suns, a team that started over-the-air broadcasts for the first time in the 2023-24 season.

At any point, if other options do not pan out, it appears that MLB is the fallback.

“We know we can go on MLB today if we decide to,” Hall said. “They’ve been very patient. We’ve told them we’re continuing to explore other options. They know we have other options and offers on the table.”

No matter what TV arrangement the team ultimately settles on, it does not expect to recoup all of the money from the previous agreement with Bally Sports Arizona.

That deal, signed in 2015, was reportedly worth around $1.5 billion over 20 years, an average of $75 million per year.

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Top photo: Rob Schumacher/The Republic