Goodyear, Reds Make a Deal

The Phoenix suburb of Goodyear and the Cincinnati Reds have agreed to negotiate with each other exclusively for the next 75 days following a deal agreed to last week by the Goodyear City Council.

 

The city will stop any efforts to lure other Major League Baseball teams into sharing Goodyear’s training complex with the Cleveland Indians. In return, the Reds will not talk with other cities as the team looks to relocate from its current training facility in Sarasota , Fla.

 

Goodyear issued $75 million of sales tax bonds, backed by a promise of tax revenue from the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority, late last year to complete the financing for a spring training facility that will include a 10,000-seat stadium. The Indians are to begin training at the complex when it is completed next spring. 

 

An intergovernmental agreement signed by Goodyear and AZSTA in January 2007 calls for the authority to provide up to half the financing for the training complex from the revenue it receives from taxes on hotel rooms and car rentals in Maricopa County. However, the money from the authority is currently dedicated to debt service on existing sports facility bonds, and won’t be available until 2019.

 

The Reds have the option to stay in Sarasota until 2011.

 

Goodyear’s general obligation bonds carry underlying ratings of A from Standard & Poor’s and A2 from Moody’s Investors Service.

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