Top Menu

Mesa: We think another MLB team will move to HoHoKam

HoHoKam ParkMesa officials have a game plan for HoHoKam Park, which in the next few years will become the former spring home of the Chicago Cubs: they’ll try to attract another MLB team to train there.

Not a bad plan, really: might as well give it a shot. The plan is pretty simple: when the Cubs leave in 2013 (or perhaps earlier), Mesa will be working to have another MLB team lined up as a new tenant. While Mesa officials say they’ll look to Florida for a team, they’re probably wasting their time: virtually every team is now committed to their Florida homes via long-term lease; the few that aren’t, like the Washington Nationals and Minneota Twins, are highly unlikely to uproot operations for Arizona.

Indeed, Mesa’s best chances to lease HoHoKam Park and Fitch Park probably rests in a team already in the Cactus League or a team form overseas. While we expect the Milwaukee Brewers to stay at Maryvale Baseball Park, one of the next two teams whose leases are expiring — Seattle and San Diego — may be willing to look at a situation where they’d have a ballpark and training facilities all to themselves. And, of course, there’s forever talk that a Japanese or Korean pro team will train in the United States at some point.

We’re a little surprised there’s been limited talk of using HoHoKam for tournaments. One area where Florida has a huge lead on Arizona: they’ve definitely turned old ballparks into very viable venues for youth, high-school and college tournaments. Visit Terry Park, which opened almost a century ago as the spring home of the Philadephia A’s, and you’ll find baseball played almost daily throughout the winter and spring; the same goes for Holman Stadium and Chain of Lakes Park. There just aren’t the same sorts of facilities in the greater Phoenix area, even with former ballparks like the one in Chandler sitting empty.

RELATED STORIES: Five sites emerge as home for new Cubs facility; Cubs to Naples: We prefer to stay in Arizona, thank you; Florida group to Cubs: Tell us if we’re really in the running to land spring training; Naples: We think we still have shot at landing Cubs spring training; Cubs, Mesa working on new spring-ballpark agreement; Mesa: We’ll finance Cubs ballpark on our own; State funding for Cubs spring facility “dead”; Florida explores new money for luring Cactus League teams; Selig pushes Cubs aside, will directly negotiate funding of new spring venue; Legislators: Yup, we want Cactus League ticket tax; Cubs: We’re not wedded to idea of Cactus League ticket tax; Cactus League teams, Selig oppose Cubs spring-training funding; Mesa to ask for state aid to keep Cubs; Cubs seriously looking at Naples spring-training bid; Naples: We’re serious about landing the Cubs; Ricketts to visit Mesa next week to tour potential spring-training sites; Lawmaker: Florida should up spending to lure spring camps for Cubs, Brewers; Cubs’ spring-training future doesn’t lie in HoHoKam Park; Mesa delegation to pitch Cubs on spring-training facilities

Share your news with the baseball community. Send it to us at editors@augustpublications.com.

Subscribers to the weekly Ballpark Digest newsletter see features before they’re posted to the site. You can sign up for a free subscription at the Newsletter Signup Page.

Join Ballpark Digest on Facebook and on Twitter!

, , , , , , , ,