SAN DIEGO — Good-bye Tucson, hello Scottsdale.
In a decision that’s been brewing for months, the Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks officially announced Thursday that they will be sharing a joint spring training complex near Scottsdale beginning in 2011.
The new facility will be built on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community on 140-acres adjacent to Scottsdale. Under the agreement, the tribe will build an 11,000-seat ballpark and a complex that includes 12 practice fields, training facilities and team offices. The deal is for 25 years with options to extend the contract.
“We know that this shared home will be one of the finest year-round training facilities in all of major league baseball and something that our organizations, fans and the community will be proud of for decades to come,” Rockies president Keli McGregor said in a statement.
The move means that the spring of 2010 will mark the Rockies’ final spring training at Hi Corbett Field in Tucson where the Rockies have trained since their inception in 1993.
“I’ve been going to Tucson for a long time, so it’s going to be different, that’s for sure,” Rockies veteran first baseman Todd Helton said. “There won’t be as much travel for us, so that’s a good thing. And we’ll have a new facility, so that’s always a cool thing.”
The Rockies and Diamondbacks were the only teams remaining in Tucson and the teams were growing weary of long bus trips up and down Interstate 10 to play other Cactus League teams in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Chicago White Sox moved out of Tucson and into a new facility with the Los Angeles Dodgers near the Phoenix suburb of Glendale last year.
“There were times when our guys would spend five or six hours on the bus,” Rockies manager Jim Tracy said. “That didn’t matter much when they were fresh, but toward the end of camp, that starts to wear on you.”
The tribe and the two baseball clubs said they would make joint decisions on the design of the facility near Indian Bend Road and the Loop 101 freeway. HKS Architects, which designed the Camelback Ranch-Glendale facility for the Dodgers and White Sox that opened this spring, will design the new complex. The site is close to a casino operated by the tribe and an adjacent large hotel that is under construction.
“Our ancestors built ball courts on this land and throughout the valley,” Diane Enos, president of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, said in a statement. “Now we are excited about bringing baseball home to our community.”
Rockies second baseman Clint Barmes has mixed emotions about the move.
“I really like Tucson and I think a lot of the guys are very comfortable there,” he said. “But it will be nice not to have to travel so much. I’m excited to see the new facility.”
Patrick Saunders: 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report
