Glendale official pushes Valley cities to meet with MLB on lockout's spring training impact
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“It will for all intents and purposes be three years that we’ve not been able to even come close to recapturing just a part of the money that is necessary to repay the significant investment that not only Glendale, but the other cities have made."”
With the ongoing Major League Baseball player lockout potentially delaying or canceling spring training, one city manager in the Valley said he may try to convene city managers next month to engage MLB about the Cactus League.
Valley cities are preparing for spring training as normal, optimistic the Cactus League will start on its scheduled opening day of Feb. 26.
However, while Glendale City Manager Kevin Phelps said he also remains optimistic the lockout will end soon, he said he is “very upset” at the prospect of MLB canceling the Cactus League season, especially when the past two spring training seasons have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
Spring training is normally an economic driver for businesses in the Valley, but the past two years have come with fewer games, fewer fans and fewer out-of-state tourists visiting Arizona.
“It will for all intents and purposes be three years that we’ve not been able to even come close to recapturing just a part of the money that is necessary to repay the significant investment that not only Glendale, but the other cities have made,” Phelps said.
Phelps said if in mid-January it doesn’t look like a settlement will occur between MLB owners and the MLB Players Association, he will gather city managers from other Valley cities with Cactus League ballparks and discuss engaging MLB about the lockout.
Normally, any interaction between Arizona cities and MLB is done through the Cactus League Association, which represents facilities, teams and municipalities in the league.
Phelps said convening city managers might be necessary not because the Cactus League Association doesn’t do a good job, but because the city managers hold more leverage.
“At the end of the day, each of the cities holds a gigantic hammer in terms of how we invest on capital improvements and, you know, how we do things,” Phelps said.
Cactus League Executive Director Bridget Binsbacher said the group has not heard from MLB since the lockout started on Dec. 1. Phelps said he hasn’t been in contact with MLB in the nearly six years he’s been with Glendale.
Phelps criticized the way MLB has approached its partnership with cities that have spring training facilities.
“I’m just disappointed that Major League Baseball doesn’t seem to be concerned as to whether or not their decisions make that much difference to all these cities that have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to support spring training,” Phelps said. “They use the term ‘partner,’ but I don’t see a partnership… I don’t think they care at all whether our taxpayers are holding the bill or whether we recover money from stuff coming in. I think it’s just they almost feel like they’re doing us a favor here in Glendale to have a stadium.”
A good partner, Phelps said, would look for ways to help spring training facilities and their cities through the tough times caused by the pandemic, such as giving the Cactus League money for marketing or looking for new revenue streams.
Glendale's State Farm Stadium, owned by the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority, periodically hosts the Super Bowl and the NCAA men's basketball Final Four. Phelps said both of those leagues have been better partners to Glendale, looking for programs that can promote the league while also helping the community.
Phelps clarified he was not upset with the Los Angeles Dodgers or the Chicago White Sox, the teams that play at Glendale-owned Camelback Ranch, but at the league.
There are eight cities and one Indian reservation that own spring training facilities: Glendale, Peoria, Surprise, Goodyear, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, Tempe and the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, which owns Salt River Fields at Talking Stick.
Financial impact of spring training
Binsbacher emphasized how much spring training normally means economically for the state and how much that boon was impacted by the pandemic the last couple years.
Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business conducts an economic impact report on the Cactus League during even years. In the last report under pre-pandemic conditions in 2018, the report found spring training generated a total impact of $644 million, as well as about 6,400 jobs annually and $31.9 million in state and local tax revenues.
In 2020, when the spring training season was cut short by the start of the pandemic, that figure of total economic impact generated was nearly cut in half to $363 million.
In 2021, though a full spring training season was played, fan capacity was limited to 25%, and because many people still weren’t comfortable traveling, local fans made up a far bigger share of the crowd. Normally, about six of 10 fans at Cactus League games are from out of state, according to Binsbacher.
Binsbacher and Phelps both emphasized how crucial out-of-state dollars are to the economic model around spring training.
“The multiplier effect of dollars spent is exponentially higher with an out-of-state traveler,” Phelps said.
Full steam ahead
The Valley is preparing as usual, hoping spring training starts on time.
“Like any other year, we’re doing everything we can to prepare for opening day,” Binsbacher said.
Multiple cities said the same.
“At this time, we are preparing for a spring training season as we typically would,” city of Surprise spokeswoman Virginia Mungovan stated via email.
A Mesa spokeswoman said it was too early to discuss any threat the lockout may pose to spring training.
“It is premature for us to talk about the impact that a possible cancellation of MLB spring training will have in Mesa,” she stated via email. “We keep both the Oakland A’s and Chicago Cubs spring training facilities in top shape year-round, and we are prepared to welcome baseball enthusiasts in Mesa in February.”
Phelps noted even if the lockout is resolved in time for the season to start on Feb. 26, it may still come with a cost. Many out-of-state families are wanting to plan trips to Arizona now but are unsure if there will be a spring training, he said.
“The window is quickly evaporating,” Phelps said, again noting how crucial out-of-state dollars are to spring training.
“In a city that has had some challenging deals in the past, I will say this is the rising star of bad deals for the taxpayers.”
Glendale recently has told the National Hockey League’s Phoenix Coyotes they must leave the city-owned Gila River Arena after this season. They also pushed the team to pay back taxes or be locked out of the arena by Dec. 20. The team made those payments.
Binsbacher, who also is on the Peoria City Council, said she wants to see the Cactus League help businesses and other stakeholders rebound after potentially lean years due to lack of tourism.
“All of our stakeholders, our partners — we represent 10 facilities, eight municipalities and a tribal community — they have been through a lot, like everyone in the tourism industry and hospitality has been in the last couple of years. We were really hoping for a regular season. And you know, the Cactus League and the numbers I just shared should definitely be part of Arizona’s recovery,” Binsbacher said.
In 2018, ASU’s study showed the Cactus League $122 million for bars and restaurants.
“A lot of those are privately owned businesses. Behind every one of those is a family and an individual and a livelihood,” Binsbacher said.
Summer training?
Recent history has shown that MLB players want a warm-up to the season. After spring training was stopped in mid-March 2020, teams picked up with intrasquad exhibition games at their own Major League stadiums.
Phelps said he’d seen reported and heard from sources the same thing — playing away from Cactus League Parks — is being considered again should a delay to the 2022 MLB season occur.
Though Arizona summers bring extreme heat, baseball is played in spring training parks in the summer during the rookie-level Arizona League. Games are mainly played at night and with little to no fans, so the task of luring spring training crowds to the parks on summer nights would be a new challenge.
Mark Carlisle can be reached at mcarlisle@iniusa.org or found on Twitter @mwcarlisle.
Mark Carlisle Associate Editor | Phoenix @mwcarlisle
Mark Carlisle joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2017, covering Glendale. He has since moved to the Daily Independent team, primarily covering the city of Phoenix along with other topics affecting the Valley at-large.
Community: Mark enjoys taking his two young sons to parks, the Phoenix Zoo, the Phoenix Public Library and other fun events around the Valley. He also participates in a local book club.
Education: Chapman University with a BA in English Journalism and one in Screenwriting.
Random Fact: Mark worked at a tuxedo shop in college. Just don’t ask him to tie a bowtie.
Hobbies: Spending time with his wife, sons and dog, watching sports and TV shows, listening to audiobooks and occasionally writing fiction or designing a board game.
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