re: Dbacks unhappy with Chase Field; threaten lawsuit/departure

This along with the hoopla the Arizona Coyotes raised about their lease in Glendale puts a bad light on Phoenix based sports franchises.

Also it's laughable to compare this to the Braves situation at Turner Field. One was built for baseball while the other was repurposed after the Olympics.

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I've always been surprised that they completely rebuilt Old Yankee Stadium instead of just renovating the shite outta of it

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In a sense, the original Yankee Stadium was pretty much rebuilt in the 70s.

I went to Chase Field this Summer to watch the Diamondbacks vs the Dodgers. The field seemed pretty nice to me. Not a lot of fan support though

Downtown Phoenix sucks so bad. I would much rather be in Old Town Scottsdale or Downtown Tempe. Phoenix looks like a city... In North Korea. There's just no people there thriving about.

Chase Field looks pretty bad from the outside (needs a fresh coat of paint), but I don't understand why they're complaining about its insides.

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I know that the upper deck is enormous. I'm guessing what they are wanting in terms of "renovations" are more suites/clubs/premium seating?

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I read a few articles yesterday. They don't really get into specifics outside of wanting to reduce capacity from its current figure of near 49,000.

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Premium seating includes 4,400 club seats, 57 suites, 6 party suites, Executive suite, batters box suite, two dugout suites, and the Ramtrucks.com Party Pool.

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Comparing that to some of the recent MLB parks, Target Field has 54 suites, The Braves Suntrust park will have somewhere around 4,000 club seats. So Chase seems to be in line with even the brand new parks from comparable markets.

One thing I found interesting was that tax payers funded up to $253 million with the team being responsible for anything over that. Initial cost was estimated to be $279 million but ended up at $364 million. So the team took on that extra $111 million but as an expansion team, couldn't take part in MLB revenue sharing for the first 5 years of existence.

I guess it comes down to location and ballpark surroundings. In terms of cost to build Chase Field. Costs always end up being much greater than the number pitched to the taxpayers when trying to get their vote. Conversely, several years after the ballpark gets built, economic benefits are often far less than what was pitched to the taxpayers.

Read this article a little while ago, breaks down the downtown situation/location of Chase Field LINK

I've never been to Chase Field so I'm ignorant to the ballpark amenities and surrounding area. As an Astros fan, we've got Minute Maid Park which was opened 2 years after Chase. I can't imagine 2 years from now the Astros threatening to leave because the stadium is no longer "state of the art". The park still feels modern and doesn't seem to lack for amenities in its 16th year.


Based on the article you linked it sounds like the Dbacks are wanting to follow the trend the Braves started. The Braves literally took their park to the season ticket holders and are creating an entertainment district to draw people into the area for reasons beyond just the ballpark.

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I've never been inside of Chase Field, but am going there in June for a game, I'll be happy to take notes on what an unsuitable dump it is.

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It's not.

I have been to probably 200 games there.

There is not one thing wrong with that stadium.

The problem here is you have a relatively new ownership group who have been unable to get butts in the seats...

...they believe the solution to that is a new taxpayer funded stadium as opposed to putting a consistent owner funded winner on the field.

The Dbacks are stuck in their contract until 2024 and they damn well need to be. It wasn't a popular thing for Maricopa county to build in 1998 and there is no way in hell that the county is going to go back to the taxpayers and ask for 200 million dollars in the current economic environment.

I went in 2011 and actually thought it was one of the nicer parks I've been too. It's almost exactly like Minute Maid IMO

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I guess it comes down to location and ballpark surroundings. In terms of cost to build Chase Field. Costs always end up being much greater than the number pitched to the taxpayers when trying to get their vote. Conversely, several years after the ballpark gets built, economic benefits are often far less than what was pitched to the taxpayers.

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It's planning gone awry.

In the 70s it was multi-use cookie-cutter AstroTurf monstrosities than became obsolete in 20 years.

Then Camden Yards ushered the Urban Renewal Stadium Era. Buy up land in the cheapest, shittiest part of downtown and watch the people come back! Some did, some didn't.

So now that backlash begins. Nobody wants to be in Phoenix or Atlanta at night, so follow the money and make a White Suburban Sports Entertainment Complex! Only in 20 years the demographics will change and rich white people will move somewhere else and the new stadiums will be the Cortana Mall of sports stadiums.