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White Sox approached Indians about TucsonCleveland officials even toured TEP before declining
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 12.22.2006
The Chicago White Sox have approached the Cleveland Indians numerous times — including in the past two months — about moving to Tucson to take their place at Tucson Electric Park, but the team declined.
Now the Indians seem to have secured a new stadium in Goodyear, clearing the way for them to move from Winter Haven, Fla., in 2009.
And the White Sox do not seem very happy about it.
Paul Dolan, president of the Indians, said Thursday his club was first approached by Chicago three years ago to move to TEP. Dolan even toured Tucson Electric Park but decided after about a month of consideration that Tucson was not a good fit.
"As wonderful a place as Tucson is, we made that determination that logistically it was just too much of a mountain to overcome for us," Dolan said.
He cited two travel issues — the lack of direct flights from Cleveland to Tucson and that the Indians would have to bus to most of their Cactus League road games — as reasons for the decision.
"We spent some time internally talking about it, and responded back to the White Sox that it just wasn't gonna work," Dolan said.
The White Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers hope to move to Glendale by 2009. Thursday, the project's funding structure was approved by the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority. However, the White Sox cannot leave TEP before their lease expires at the end of the 2012 season unless they find a team to take their place.
The ASTA said Thursday that, after building both the Glendale and Goodyear complexes, there will not be sufficient funds to build any additional Cactus League complexes.
Thursday, the Indians made one of the final steps toward moving to Goodyear, securing their largest victory since first entering formal discussions with the city in September. Thursday's memorandum of understanding gives the team until Jan. 31 to finalize an intergovernmental agreement, the last step in securing funding from the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority.
Following Thursday's ASTA meeting, White Sox attorney John Kaites said Goodyear only pursued the Indians after the city discovered the White Sox were interested in them as a replacement team.
"Their baseball people were working with our baseball people on exploring the possibility of coming out here," he said, "and all of sudden we didn't hear from them, and the next thing we saw was a public announcement from Goodyear."
But Goodyear mayor Jim Cavanaugh said it was never the Indians' intent to move to Tucson.
"The logistics to Tucson don't work for the Indians," he said.
Kaites asked the ASTA to not fund any other Cactus League projects until a replacement team is found for Tucson.
The ASTA will fund between $30 million and $34 million of the one-team $74.5 million complex, depending on interest rates.
The ASTA uses Maricopa County tax money to fund up to two-thirds of Cactus League renovation and construction within the county.
Approval was key to the Indians, whose discussions with Goodyear would have expired at the end of the year.
Thursday's ruling — which all but assures the Indians will move to Goodyear — is bad news for the White Sox, who are still looking for a replacement team.
White Sox spokesman Scott Reifert would not confirm the White Sox had tried to lure the Indians to Tucson.
However, the Indians were the hottest name bantered about as a replacement, partially because of their history here. The Indians trained at Hi Corbett Field from 1947 to 1992.
"We were very clear with everyone we spoke to about the subject — including the White Sox — that Tucson wasn't really an option for us," Dolan said.
● Star reporter Daniel Scarpinato contributed to this report.
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