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Just as Utah Hockey Club is getting ready for its first season away from Arizona, a report surfaced last week that the chances are increasing that another big sports franchise in the Grand Canyon State could have to relocate, and it’s one that could be of interest for the Beehive State.
Last Thursday, Arizona Diamondbacks Sports Illustrated reporter Jack Sommers reported that negotiations over the lease of Chase Field, where the Diamondbacks have played their entire existence since 1998, are not going well, which could lead to a relocation of the team when its lease expires in 2027.
Sommers recounted how Diamondbacks team officials have “made veiled threats about the possibility of relocating outside the state,” with particular reference to a quote that team CEO Derrick Hall gave to Sports Business Journal’s Bret McCormick about how the Utah Legislature has earmarked almost a billion dollars for a Major League Baseball team.
“It woke a lot of people up and showed just how easily a team can be lured away,” Hall told McCormick, adding that although the lease doesn’t expire until 2027, he sees “early 2025″ as the deadline for when things need to get resolved.
“I can never see us leaving the area, but if there is a market out there that is very aggressive, you never know what extent they’ll go to acquire a team.”
To add to Hall’s thinking about next year being when the lease issue needs to get resolved, McCormick quoted Carl Hirsh of Stafford Sports in New Jersey as saying, “If they don’t have a plan with three or four years left, that’s a problem.”
Both Sommers and McCormick reported that Chase Field needs roughly $500 million in renovations. Its retractable roof, which was a novel idea when the stadium was opened 26 years ago, hasn’t worked in two years.
The issues have led to public spats between Diamondbacks officials and leaders of Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located. The team sued the county in 2018 “for falling roughly $200 million short in funding Chase Field upkeep,” McCormick reported, a suit that was settled and gave the Diamondbacks more control over the stadium, although the team has struggled to make needed renovations.
If the issues cannot be resolved, relocation of the franchise in a few years is a definite possibility, with Sommers listing Utah first in a list of potential destinations, in large part due to Big League Utah, a coalition led by the Larry H. Miller Company to bring Major League Baseball to the Beehive State.
“Salt Lake City is certainly a possibility. Big League Utah is just such an aggressive entity that Hall alluded to. They are willing to either take on a team that is looking to relocate, or bring in an expansion franchise,” Sommers wrote.
Nashville, Montreal, Charlotte, San Antonio and Portland are other cities Sommers listed as potential relocation destinations.
In June, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred told reporters — as the Deseret News reported — that expansion likely wouldn’t see a new team or teams begin play until 2031, although a relocation would obviously change that, just as has happened with Utah Hockey Club.
