The San Francisco Giants will benefit from a deal between the cities of Phoenix and Scottsdale. It calls for the team’s player development program to move from Scottsdale to Phoenix’s Papago Baseball Complex which has seen little activity since the Oakland A’s moved to Mesa a few years ago.
“This is all part of a master plan that’s occurring out in the Papago Park area to increase activity, to make it a family-oriented activity which all of this is,” said Phoenix Councilman Sal DiCiccio. “And then the offshoot of this is that we end up providing a safety net for the Cactus League because they needed to do that. We’ve got to find ways to work with them.”
Councilman Jim Waring who consistently votes against financially supporting sports teams supported the deal because the Parks Department said it would save the city about $850,000 per year.
“So, my understanding is that the citizens who use the field now, their participation may be limited for about a year as refurbishment, construction is done,” he said during last Wednesday’s council meeting. “But subsequent to that year they will actually have better facilities they get to use more?”
“That is correct,” said Inger Erikson, parks director. “They’ll actually have 94 more days available to them.”
The deal also includes trail improvements around Papago Park and requires Scottsdale and the Giants to make both Papago and the Scottsdale Stadium available to the public when not in use.
Scottsdale’s council must still vote on the plan which includes paying Phoenix $2 million in rent over the term.
