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Reds Make It Official: Team Will Spend Springs In Arizona

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By ROGER DROUIN

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: July 15, 2008

SARASOTA – Goodyear, Ariz., and the Cincinnati Reds sealed their deal Monday to move the team's spring training to Goodyear's $108 million sports complex with 10,000 seats.

"It's official," said Nora Fascenelli, public information officer with the Phoenix suburb.

The Reds will join the Cleveland Indians in the two-team complex for the 2010 spring training season. This year was the last year of a 10-year contract with Sarasota, and team executives said they plan on playing one more season here before heading west.

Goodyear will build a $32 million facility for the Reds, which will include a clubhouse, six full practice baseball fields, one half-practice field and one agility field.

The Reds are pitching in $100,000 a year in operating expenses, and Goodyear gets a portion of ticket sales and advertising revenue. Goodyear also keeps naming rights.

The city gets 20 percent of general ticket sales and half of ad revenue during spring training games. The city also collects the entire profit from 500 premium seats, and that money goes towards an improvement program to keep maintenance up at the stadium and complete renovation projects over time.

"So we don't end up with an ugly, worn-out, outdated stadium at the end of 20 years," Fascenelli said. "This is an asset, and we don't want it to become a rundown facility."

Seven months ago when plans for a renovated stadium in Sarasota started to fall apart, the team approached the Arizona about moving from Sarasota. A delegation from the team toured Goodyear, and a few weeks later Reds executives signed an agreement preventing the team from negotiating with other cities, including Sarasota.

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