A hot topic currently being discussed and debated in Arizona has to do with the prospect of the Chicago Cubs leaving Mesa when their lease offers them an out after 2012. They have called Arizona their spring home since 1952 interrupted by only one year in California.
One of my most enduring memories of the Cubs is listening each spring for Harry Caray’s slurring attempts to pronounce the name of Mesa’s Hohokam Stadium. It ranked right up there with his rendition of Fernando Valenzuela for entertainment value. But since Harry is gone, why not the Cubs, too?
The climate may be right as the new deep-pocketed owners of the Cubbies, the Ricketts family from Omaha and TD Amertrade fame, have no particular allegiance to Mesa and Arizona.
Cubs president Crane Kenney recently announced they are seriously entertaining an offer from a Naples, Florida group to move the Cubs there starting in 2013. The Florida group, led by executives from Esmark Inc. with Chicago ties, would build a privately-financed complex. They even have a website with a petition for Cubs fans to sign.
If the move actually happens, it would be the first bit of good news in a long time for a reeling Grapefruit League. Currently Florida and Arizona each have 15 spring training camps with the trend clearly aiming west.
Since 2003, five teams have relocated from Florida to Arizona, with the Cincinnati Reds the latest. They have left Sarasota to join the Cleveland Indians in Goodyear, Arizona for spring 2010. Perhaps the biggest blow was the Dodgers’ abandonment of Vero Beach’s Dodgertown, a spring training icon now owned by Minor League Baseball.
The problem in Florida remains the geographic disbursement of sites. Spring training bases are clustered in three groups – in the central, southwest (on the Gulf Coast) and southeast (along the Atlantic Ocean). Travel outside the cluster for games, especially to the southeast, is rare due to the three- to four-hour bus rides involved. For minor league games, it is completely out of the question.
Along with the departure of the Dodgers in 2008, the Cardinals have lost another nearby opponent in 2010 and beyond as the Orioles have moved to Sarasota, replacing the Reds. Ft. Lauderdale Stadium joins Dodgertown’s Holman Stadium among the tenant-less spring parks that formerly welcomed St. Louis regularly.
That means the Marlins and Mets remain the only clubs within an hour of the Cardinals in Jupiter. The Nationals are next closest at 110 miles, two hours away in Viera.
It is quite amazing given the quantity of people in South Florida that there are no longer any spring camps in the entire Miami-Ft. Lauderdale corridor. Guess they are all waiting to attend Marlins regular season games…
The Cubs’ potential arrival in Naples, on the Gulf Coast, would provide a nearby opponent for the Rays, Twins and Red Sox, but not much help for the Cardinals. They would probably at best offer St. Louis a pair of games each spring due to the distance. Naples is 163 miles, 2 hours and 40 minutes across Alligator Alley away from Jupiter.
For example, in 2010, the Twins and Sawx play the Cards one home and one away spring game, while the Rays are off the schedule completely. Link to Cardinals 2010 spring schedule.
In summary, it may be good for Florida if the Cubs relocate, but the Cardinals’ geographic problem remains with no solution in sight.
That’s a good image. They really are positioned poorly, huh?
It was a sad day when the Cardinals decided to leave St. Pete , the lure of an upgraded facility must have been the attraction.
It is a training , instructional camp so maybe the lack of other teams doesn’t matter so much.
Worse for the fans than the owners.
Still it could be pretty lackluster to play the same team 10 or more times.
Cubs to make decision between AZ and FL in early January.
ESPN Chicago
Now the decision has apparently slid to late January as Mesa is asking AZ officials for state aid to build a new ballpark in an attempt to keep the Cubs. How that could be resolved in two weeks is beyond me. My guess is that this will drag out for some time if Cubs ownership lets it.
In other Florida spring news, a lawsuit is delaying renovations in Sarasota, the new home of the Orioles and former site of the Reds and White Sox spring training camps. The O’s will make one spring appearance in Jupiter this March, but the Cards do not travel to Sarasota. (Link to Cardinals spring schedule in the main article.)
Update on decision making process. Getting close.
15,000 is big. Would some minor league team play there too or what. Sounds like quite an investment just for spring training.
Yes, I expect there would be a Florida State League or Arizona League club using the park during the summer, though those leagues are poorly-attended.
Cubs tentative decision is to remain in Arizona, pending all the approvals, of course: link
Trouble in paradise. To fund the new Cubs ballpark in Arizona, lawmakers want to tax all teams’ spring training tickets, not just the Cubs. Not surprisingly, the White Sox and D’backs are objecting. Link to Cubs tax article.
Every single one of the other 14 MLB clubs that train in Arizona along with Bud Selig himself has come out against the Cubs tax of $2 to $25 per ticket to be added to the price of their spring training tickets to pay for the new Cubs park. The Cubs don’t care what the others think. The bill still has to be passed this summer: link
A good summary of the current situation with the “Cubs Tax.”
The latest appears to be that the Cubs have told Naples they are out.
Mesa approves new spring facility for Cubs
City voters OK $84 million for modern complex and ballpark
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-1104-mesa-cubs-chicago–20101103,0,5474908.story
Thanks for the link, bb. It was being discussed when I was in AZ, but I forgot to post anything about it. The poor folks in Naples, Florida were played.