More Reds talk on move to Arizona

Around Baseball: Sharing can be good while in the Arizona sun
Sunday, February 17, 2008
BY Andy Call
REPOSITORY SPORTS WRITER

If you like buxom blondes, young man, go west.

The Cincinnati Reds are negotiating with Goodyear, Ariz., to join the Cleveland Indians in their new spring-training complex as soon as 2010. Cincinnati has spent the last 10 years in Sarasota. Reds Vice President Doug Healy told the Dayton Daily News, "Sarasota is the ugly stepsister, and Goodyear is the buxom blonde."

More teams could follow the Indians and Reds to the Phoenix area. The Dodgers will leave for Glendale, Ariz., in 2009 after 60 years in Vero Beach, Fla. The White Sox are trying to encourage a Florida-based team to shift to Tucson, allowing Chicago to leave that facility and join the Dodgers in Glendale.

If the Reds move, there will be 15 teams each in Florida and Arizona. Only six teams were conducting spring training in Arizona as recently as 1992.

"Arizona seems to have an economic engine generating real interest in those communities," Indians Executive Vice President for Business Dennis Lehman said. "In the case of Goodyear, the people there saw a ballpark as a linchpin for a downtown city center and the development that could take place around it."

"Florida has had so much spring training tradition and history, but Arizona has been very aggressive," Commissioner Bud Selig told the New York Times.

Shorter travel time between sites and more predictable weather are two factors in Arizona's favor. Another is the concept of two teams occupying the same facility.

The Reds and Indians would split a brand-new $75-million facility with all the bells and whistles while making only minimal financial contributions. The White Sox would share the Dodgers' new facility in Glendale. Kansas City and Texas have shared space in Surprise, Ariz., since 2003.

Lehman said the Indians have been encouraging the Reds to consider joining them for "months," and that Goodyear could see significant benefits from adding a second team.

"It gives those communities a much broader base for seeking advertising revenue, season tickets and naming rights," Lehman said. "More home games also increases their opportunity for revenue from concessions and retail.

"From our perspective, there are positives as well. It's certainly more economical for our minor-league teams to walk across the field and play a game than to send them on a two-hour bus ride."

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