merkin
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Florida to Arizona ST migration funding approved
Glendale, here come the Sox
But their move to new spring facility may wait until 2013
By Dave van Dyck
Tribune staff reporter
December 21, 2006, 10:53 PM CST
The White Sox and Cubs will be able to renew their recently heated-up rivalry even more times in spring training after approval of two new facilities near Phoenix.
The Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority approved more than $50 million to build a two-team stadium in Glendale—which the White Sox and Dodgers will share—and $30 million for a one-team site in Goodyear, which will house the Indians.
Glendale is a western suburb of Phoenix and puts the Sox in the same vicinity as the Cubs, who train in the eastern suburb of Mesa, for the first time. The Sox could move as soon as 2009, but only if they can find a replacement team for their current spring home in Tucson.
If the Sox can't find a team from the Florida Grapefruit League to take their place, they will not move until 2013 when their Tucson lease expires. According to sources, White Sox and Glendale officials have an agreement that the Dodgers could be the sole tenant of the new facility until the White Sox's lease expires in Tucson.
However, the Orioles may be looking to leave Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., after city commissioners refused to support funding to upgrade the spring stadium. Their agreement there ends after 2007. The Reds also may be looking for a new spring home because of repairs needed in Sarasota, Fla. The Reds moved to that site after the White Sox departed for Tucson.
If one of those teams would move west, Arizona's Cactus League would have an uneven number of teams. According to one source with knowledge of the situation, that would not be a scheduling problem because of "split-squad" games and off days.
For the Sox, the move means they will be closer to the large population of transplanted Chicagoans in the Phoenix area who help make the Cubs the top attendance draw in the Cactus League.
The Cubs and Sox are scheduled to play only twice this spring. But the Cubs and Padres, whose spring home is not far from Glendale, meet four times.
Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, who angered officials in Sarasota when the team left, has Pima County officials in Tucson upset with him now.
They retain the right to refuse a replacement team the Sox find, although that would be unlikely.
The Sox moved into a state-of-the-art facility with the Arizona Diamondbacks in Tucson, about two hours south of Phoenix, in 1998.
Since then, the White Sox have become a popular team because of their World Series championship in 2005.
Reinsdorf called Thursday's vote "great news for the many White Sox fans transplanted from Chicago. With [the] decision, both the White Sox and Dodgers can begin to take the necessary next steps to move spring training to 'The Valley.'"
The Dodgers are an even more attractive draw than the White Sox because of the proximity of Los Angeles to Phoenix. The Dodgers have trained in Vero Beach. Fla., for decades.
Goodyear, which is about 30 miles west of Phoenix, had hoped to attract two teams to a new facility but will settle for the Indians, who trained in Tucson before moving to Florida.
If the Sox depart Tucson without a replacement team, that city will be left with only two teams, the Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies, whose lease also expires in a few years.
Still, Reinsdorf said the Sox are optimistic about finding a replacement team.
original here
--- "...the best evaluation of players is subjective judgment...The real baseball world is inevitably going to be hundreds of times more complicated than the model that we construct...." -Bill James
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12/22/2006, 6:55 pm
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Monkey51
Bullpen Catcher
Registered: 02-2006
Location: hanging from the ceiling
Posts: 7581
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Re: Florida to Arizona ST migration funding approved
damn it..is it because the population is slowly dying in florida?
and the sox fans that are showing up are BANDwagon fans..they suck..the team suffers..they're screw..just my take..
--- Hamels started toward the dugout after what he thought was a strike. Lincecum didn't get the call & buzzed ump Dana DeMuth w. a fastball that slammed off the backstop & then froze Hamels w. another 3rd strike. 4/28/10 Timmy the ump killer.
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12/22/2006, 8:12 pm
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