Arizona State University last week halted talks about joining with the city of Mesa and the Chicago Cubs on a new baseball spring training facility being built with $84 million of general obligation bonds.
Athletic department spokesman Thomas Lenneberg said the school is looking for other options after failing to reach an agreement to use the Cubs facility.
“After over a year of negotiations, we are officially ending conversations with the Chicago Cubs and the city of Mesa and moving forward,” Lenneberg said.
University officials were enthusiastic about the original proposal from the Cubs, he said, but proposed changes were unacceptable.
“The new terms became far too costly to the university, imposed too many restrictions on ASU’s use of the facility, and exposed the university to too great a level of financial liability for the entire complex,” Lenneberg said.
The Cubs offered to share the new stadium with ASU’s baseball program after the school said it wanted to avoid the cost of building a replacement for its 38-year-old stadium.
The Arizona Board of Regents approved a tentative general memorandum of agreement over the stadium in 2011.
Julian Green, vice president of communications and community affairs for the Cubs, said the team is disappointed but will go ahead with the project. Site work began in July and is to be completed in late 2013.
“We believe the remaining issues could have been resolved, but to suggest the Cubs acted in bad faith is baseless,” Green said. “We invited ASU to play in a rent-free stadium. Unfortunately, this was not enough to meet the university’s needs.”
Voters approved the GO bonds for the baseball stadium in 2010, along with $200 million of utility revenue bonds. Some of the proceeds from the utility bonds will finance infrastructure work at the 100-acre spring training site.
The stadium bonds are supported through the sale of city-owned land in Pinal County.
Mesa’s GOs are rated AA by Standard & Poor’s and Aa2 by Moody’s Investors Service.
