Glendale Spring Training Complex

There will be a new ballpark in the Phoenix suburbs ready for use when Spring Training begins in 2009.

Groundbreaking ceremonies for the new Glendale Spring Training Complex, priced at $80.7 million, took place on November 19, 2007, and at the end of March the project was on schedule to be completed within the 15 months allotted. When finished, a 10,000-seat ballpark will stand on previously barren desert land.

The ballpark is being built on 151 acres of land within the city limits of Phoenix that is actually owned by Glendale, a West Valley suburb that is home to both the Arizona Cardinals of the NFL and Phoenix Coyotes of the NHL.

The ambitious city of Glendale soon hopes to add two new Major League franchises to their sports portfolio, as the complex they are building is for two teams.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have already been lured away from their famed Dodgertown complex in Florida, finally bringing the team’s operations to the West Coast. The Dodgers had been the last remaining West Coast team to train in Florida, a holdover from their Brooklyn days.

The other team seeking to relocate to Glendale is the Chicago White Sox, but they have an iron clad lease with Pima County that will keep them in Tucson through 2012. White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf has maintained that has team will be playing in Glendale in 2009, but the only way that can happen is if his organization can find another team to take over the Sox’s lease at Tucson Electric Park. Otherwise, the White Sox would have to pay a steep penalty (believe to be around $20 million) to leave early.

Glendale's contract with the Dodgers and White Sox stipulates the teams must play at least 20 games combined each spring at the ballpark. That couldn’t happen if the Sox are forced to remain in Tucson, which is reluctant to let the team go as the city could lose Spring Training altogether if fewer than three teams train there. The Diamondbacks and Rockies also currently train in Tucson.

Without the cooperation between Glendale and Phoenix the dilemma in Tucson would not have been possible. Although the ballpark and complex will carry Glendale’s name, much of it is actually being built on land in Phoenix, so the two cities had to agree on a tax-revenue sharing plan before construction could begin.

HKS Architects, the firm that produced the Rangers Ballpark in Texas and Miller Park in Milwaukee, is responsible for the design of the Glendale ballpark, which will be surrounded by restaurant and retail development, a four-star hotel and an 18-hole golf course.

Two-thirds of the funding for the complex will come from the state-run Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority. The city of Glendale is responsible for the remaining one-third, and expects to generate its funding with sales taxes and other revenues from the 500 acres that will be developed near the ballpark.

Regardless of the situation with the White Sox, the ballpark will be hosting Cactus League games in 2009. But whether or not Glendale’s two-team complex will have two tenants by then remains up for debate.

Location and Parking

The new ballpark will be just west of the 101 Loop, near the intersections of Camelback Road and 107th Avenue, and across the street from the KB Home Camelback Ranch development. Plenty of parking (5,000 spaces) will be available within the complex for baseball fans.

- Written by Graham Knight on April 5, 2008