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Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 02.09.2008
In a potential bid to save spring training in Tucson, city and University of Arizona officials have started preliminary talks about the school taking over Hi Corbett Field and renovating it to keep the National League champion Colorado Rockies from bolting.
One idea floated to help finance the $10 million to $20 million needed for renovations is for the city to also turn the nearby driving range and Randolph North and Dell Urich golf courses over to the university.
UA athletic director Jim Livengood and Tucson City Manager Mike Hein met Thursday over lunch in the office of Arizona Daily Star Publisher John M. Humenik, who invited them to discuss ideas to keep the Rockies in town.
No one has talked to the Rockies about the feasibility of sharing Hi Corbett with the UA baseball program. Several of those involved said the talks are too preliminary to take anything to the team.
The Rockies, fresh off their National League championship, return to Tucson for another spring-training season late next week.
The City Council will discuss efforts to keep them coming back on Tuesday. The discussion, requested by Democrat Rodney Glassman, is not expected to include this idea.
Both Hein and Livengood said their talks are preliminary, and there are no specifics on the table for the UA taking over the 71-year-old stadium or decisions about how to pay for improvements to bring it up to major-league standards.
Humenik categorized the meeting as a way to get more information about deeding the stadium to the UA so it can be renovated to serve both the Rockies and the UA baseball team, which has played on campus at Kendall/Sancet Stadium since 1967.
Humenik credited Jay Zucker, former owner of the AAA Tucson Sidewinders with the idea of getting the UA involved. Zucker said he talked to Humenik about it in early January, and Humenik "has really taken the ball and run with it."
Hein said Thursday's meeting was the first he heard of the proposal and the first time he met Livengood. He said Humenik gave a PowerPoint presentation on saving the Cactus League in Tucson.
Hein said the two sides talked about how to pay for upgrades to Hi Corbett.
The discussion first included giving the university the nearby driving range to raise the funds, but later Hein said he raised the possibility of including both golf courses.
Hein stressed these were just off-the-cuff ideas that were being raised during a brainstorming session.
"Now is not the time to figure out what can't be done, but to figure out what can be done," Hein said.
The idea has gained traction in the community since he first pitched it at a Jan. 25 breakfast meeting arranged by Glassman, Humenik said. That meeting, attended by 30-40 of Tucson's civic and business elite, was called to brainstorm proposals to keep the Rockies in Tucson and save spring training.
"There's a lot of potential here," Humenik said of the UA taking over the stadium. "Keeping baseball in Tucson is an important thing. To let it walk away because it's too hard I don't think is the right course."
Spring training has a $30 million economic impact on the Tucson area.
Rockies President Keli McGregor said the team wants to stay in Tucson, but he stopped short of promising renovations would be enough to keep them here. "This is the first I've ever heard of this," he said.
Team officials have said they need a third team here to replace the Chicago White Sox, who last year announced plans to move to Glendale for the 2009 season. The White Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks play at Tucson Electric Park on Ajo Way.
Hein said he isn't planning any discussions with the City Council about the idea yet because the ball is in the UA's court. They have to see if they can come up with the money to make the repairs, he said.
Livengood said he first phoned Humenik in mid-January, at Glassman's request. Humenik floated the idea of the UA taking over Hi Corbett during that phone call, Livengood said.
Glassman said he set up the Jan. 25 breakfast meeting to get ideas from the business community to figure out "how to help to save spring training."
He said he knew nothing about the Hi Corbett negotiations other than what Humenik said at the Jan. 25 meeting, and a later talk with Humenik, where he referred to setting up the meeting with Hein and Livengood.
There are no details on the table, Livengood said, because "we're just in the discussion phase on a lot of fronts."
The idea was to see it made sense and "what are the possibilities out there. That is all it is for us at this point," he said.
But Zucker suggested relocating UA baseball would also allow the demolition of Kindall/Sancet Stadium to give the university some expansion room without encroaching on nearby neighborhoods.
"The campus is getting stretched pretty tight in terms of real estate," Zucker said.
When asked about Zucker's suggestion, Hein acknowledged it's a possibility, but added that was "inferring a lot."
Livengood said a UA baseball move is far from certain. "It's not as if we're looking for a new home."
He said Sancet is a beautiful college stadium that UA recently sunk $2 million into improving. "It's as nice as any park in the Pac-10," he added.
Improvement requested by the Rockies at Hi Corbett in order for them to stay include a new minor league facility, office space, remodeled clubhouses, a new outfield wall, a grass berm beyond left field, more on-site parking and a patio and grassy knoll in right field.
Having only two teams in Tucson would put the Rockies and Diamondbacks at a competitive disadvantage, because traveling to Tucson from Phoenix already costs more, officials from both teams have said. In addition, some of the better players already skip the long trip here to play, hurting the level of competition.
That confluence of factors led Humenik to get involved.
"I couldn't sit back anymore," and wait for spring training to leave town," he said. "The bottom line for me personally is I love baseball."
He said he would "take a step back now" and leave the details up the the UA and the city.
Now that the two sides are talking, he said, the newspaper's involvement will "only be speaking about it through the editorial page."
At Tuesday's council meeting, a group of business leaders led by the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce will speak about ways to save spring training. Humenik won't be among them.
"If someone is going to speak to this idea, it's not me," Humenik said. "It's just an idea, that's all it is."
● Contact reporter Rob O'Dell at 573-4240 or rodell@azstarnet.com.
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