The Goodyear City Council has unanimously approved a contract with the Cleveland Indians that calls for the baseball team to move spring training to a new bond-financed facility in the Phoenix suburb in 2010.
The Indians agreed to stay at the facility for 20 years, and pay rent of $100,000 per year.
Preliminary plans call for a stadium with 8,000 permanent seats plus 2,000 lawn seats on a 240-acre site. The city hopes to attract another Major League Baseball team to share the $77.5 million training complex with the Indians.
Goodyear’s plans call for the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority to finance two-thirds of the total cost, with the city issuing bonds for the remainder. The AZSTA can issue revenue bonds to build and maintain spring training facilities.
City officials said they will present a formal proposal to the authority within weeks.
The complex will consist of the stadium, six practice fields, two half-fields per team tenant, and a clubhouse for each team. Completion is set for early 2009, but the Indians are committed to spring training in Florida until 2010.
