Selig tells Cubs to stay in Mesa (UPDATED)
January 21, 2010 12 Comments
Apparently the weekend lovefest in downtown Chicago has swayed some opinion. Tom Ricketts and his family have come to their senses and it looks like the Cubs will remain in Mesa. According to this report, Commissioner Selig has even spoken with the team about his desire that the team stay in the valley for Spring Training:
MESA – A source close to the Ricketts’ family, the current owner of the Cubs, says they’re 99 percent sure the Cubs are staying in Mesa for spring training.
The Cubs have expressed desire for a bigger and better training facility, and have tossed around the idea of moving to Florida after their contract is up at Hohokam Park.
The commissioner of baseball, Bud Selig, reportedly told the Cubs he’d prefer they stay in Mesa.
UPDATE 4:39 — I guess what Bud wants he gets. LOL. Dave van Dyck reports:
The Cubs and the city of Mesa are close to a final agreement on a new Arizona spring-training home for the next 25 years that would include a new stadium, for which the Cubs would have naming rights.
The city released a lengthy proposal to the media and the city council is expected to approve its end of the deal Monday, with the Cubs’ board of directors then reviewing it. That approval is expected to be a formality, as reported last weekend in the Tribune.
“The Cubs are interested in reading through Mesa’s proposal and having our board take it under review,” the Cubs said in a statement.
Cubs officials had been in negotiations with Mesa and a Naples, Fla., group about a new home, but tentatively settled on Mesa last week, although no announcement had been made pending final approval.
As this winds down, it looks like the Cubs played this masterfully from a business sense. They made Mesa (and dumb asses like me) think Mesa was becoming a longshot in recent weeks. That stepped up the pressure and Mesa now has given the Cubs a proposal for the finest Spring Training facility in the valley. We will keep an eye on this in the coming weeks.
Sweet!!
Good news, I think.
as much as i’d like the cubs to stay in phx, i don’t like the idea of the cubs making decisions based on fan popularity or what bud selig thinks is best. this is a business. that’s just my opinion.
How much property does Selig own near Mesa?
So what leverage do the Ricketts have left to actually get Mesa to improve anything?
I know his brother lives somewhere in the valley. So there is a real good chance he owns property out there Chuck.
The Cubs seem to have all of the leverage in this. I actually don’t think this diminishes that. They will negotiate with one with the threat of pulling out to negotiate with the other side. This sounds like the soap opera that was the cubs sale all over again. lol.
The way I see it, Selig plans to retire in 2012 from his job as commissioner of the MLB…
He plans to retire to Arizona and take on the part time job of being commissioner of the Cactus League. The Cactus League would be much easier to run with the revenues that the Cubs bring in…so that is Selig’s motivation here.
you might be onto something doc
So the Rickettes have learned the trick of using extortion to get what they want from Mesa. Why don’t they try the same trick for money to fix Wrigley? Who paid for all the “improvements” at The Cell?
Bud Selig hammered the Ricketts family into a no-win situation. This is why they jumped from to Naples to Mesa before the convention.
Arizona is second, only to California, in terms of fiscal distress. The state is a complete mess. The unfortunate consequence is that the Cubs will be portrayed as greedy for taking the last dollars from an insolvent state. Mesa politicians will look like morons for being gamed against Naples. And the kicker is, rival teams in the Cactus League will be forced to pay a ticket surcharge for ALL Cactus League games in order to build a stadium for the Cubs. Kansas City, San Diego and Cleveland are being forced to build a 15,000 seat stadium for a major market team with a $134MM payroll. In order to rent a car at the Phoenix airport, a Cub fan has to pay 42% in taxes and fees. This will go up at least another 10 per cent thanks to the proposal being contemplated. Thank you Bud Selig.
Now that the State of AZ, Cub fan tourists, and the Cactus League will be tapped out, the Cactus League has zero ammo left to retain the next team who demands a state of the art training complex.
Ironically, the Milwaukee Brewers are that team, which is owned by Selig. His lease in Maryvale, AZ expires in 2012.
The Brewers have been unofficially reaching out to Naples for over 3 months now.
Bud Selig made $18MM last year as Major League Baseball Commissioner.
The above comment is appearing on a number of websites. I’m all for conspiracies and tin foil hats. But we have a problem. Bud Selig has not owned the Milwaukee Brewers since he sold them in fall 2004 to Mark Attanasio.