6 May 15th-May 21st, 2025 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | Show Me the Money Are the Diamondbacks spending what they’re supposed to on Chase Field? BY ZACH BUCHANAN T he Arizona Diamondbacks want public money to pay for expensive upgrades to Chase Field, and they’re making big promises in order to secure it. Debuting along with the team in 1998, Chase Field is the only stadium the team has ever known. Owned by Maricopa County and built with $238 million in taxpayer dollars, the retractable roof stadium was once the pro sports jewel of the Valley. But as the stadium has aged, much of the last decade has been defined by ongoing squabbles between the team and county — or tenant and landlord — over whose job it is to fix it up. The team has floated the idea of seeking a new stadium elsewhere in the Valley or even leaving Arizona altogether. But now, it’s pledging to spend $250 million to upgrade the stadium — after having already spent nearly as much sprucing it up over the years, the team says — if the Arizona Legislature passes a bill to spend more tax dollars on stadium improvements. If passed, the bill would set aside tax revenue already being paid — as the bill is currently constituted, state sales tax collected from purchases at the stadium, a portion of the county’s excise tax and the state income tax of team employees — for the purpose of massive stadium upgrades. It’s hardly a no-doubter off the bat, as both the city of Phoenix and the county have registered concerns about diverting tax revenue that’s currently spent on other services. But key stakeholders met May 1 to hash out some of the differences, and Gov. Katie Hobbs has already signaled tentative support for signing it. Key to the bill is an unenforceable portion at its bottom. Under its “Legislative findings” section, the proposed law says the Diamondbacks “will contribute at least $250,000,000 of the professional baseball franchise organiza- tion’s own monies” to upgrade the 27-year- old stadium. But that big, shiny number is one the public can take only on faith. The legislature cannot compel the team to spend its own money, but only put in writing that the team has promised to do so. So, as lawmakers attempt to push the bill over the finish line, there’s a question worth asking: How good are the Diamondbacks at keeping their promises? Missing payments? To answer it requires examining the team’s current agreement to use the ballpark. In 2018, to settle a lawsuit brought by the team over stadium repair costs, the team and the county struck a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that gave the Diamondbacks more control over the stadium. Included in the agree- ment was a trade-off: The team would take over responsibility for repairs in exchange for the right to book concerts and other non-baseball events at the ballpark. The profits from those events — as well as an additional $2 million a year — would be put into a Chase Field Reserve Account for the explicit purpose of stadium fixes. Crucially, the MOU gives the team sole control over the reserve account and does not allow the county — and, therefore, the public — to see what goes into it. The only glimpse into how the Diamondbacks are using the money comes from quarterly stadium repair expense reports the team submits to the Maricopa County Stadium District, whose board of governors is composed of the five county supervisors. Through a public records request, Phoenix New Times has obtained all of those reports. For the last four years, those reports have included a balance of the reserve account. The reports reveal a few interesting things. One is that the team has indeed spent regularly on stadium repairs, which the MOU says must fall under four catego- ries of “qualifying work” — essentially, safety repairs, plumbing and cooling repairs, roof repairs, and repairs to the scoreboard and sound system. Since the agreement went into effect in September 2018, the Diamondbacks have spent $17.6 million out of the reserve account for such fixes. (Only once, when the team used reserve account money to pay for a pricey new arti- ficial-turf field, did the county object. Then-county board chairman Bill Gates sent a letter arguing that installing the turf is not “qualified work,” though the team has insisted that abandoning natural grass eases the burden on other systems that the reserve account would pay to repair.) The other revelation is that the team has definitely contributed to the reserve account, but not as much as the MOU would seem to demand. Since 2021, when the team began including the balance of the reserve account in its quarterly reports, the Diamondbacks have increased the account’s balance — either through deposits or investment growth — by $8.5 million. Yet considering the requirements of the MOU, that number seems a bit short. Putting $2 million a year into the account over four years would account for nearly all of that total. But that would mean the team cleared only $500,000 from non- baseball events since 2021. That seems unlikely given the caliber of the events the team has attracted: Elton John and Bad Bunny in 2022, Morgan Wallen and Billy Joel in 2023, Journey and Green Day last year, plus an annual college football bowl game and many other shows. What’s missing from the reserve account? Diamondbacks president and CEO Derrick Hall and team CFO Tom Harris say it’s the $2 million a year. In an interview with New Times on May 1, the two team executives said the franchise has not been depositing the required yearly payment into the reserve account and is instead setting that money aside elsewhere. “What you’re not seeing is correct,” Hall said. “We’ll take the $2 million and we have it in our own fund.” He added that the team is fulfilling its duties by accounting for that commitment on its books. “It’s parked,” he said. Meanwhile, Harris said the county is fully aware of that arrangement. “The county knows that. This isn’t any surprise,” Harris said. “We’ve had this discussion with them several times.” The language of the MOU isn’t particu- larly ambiguous. It says that $2 million “will be paid by the Team into the Reserve Account” each year. Instead, the team is keeping that money out of public Diamondbacks president and CEO Derrick Hall said the team does set aside $2 million a year for stadium repairs, as a 2018 deal with the county demands. But the team doesn’t put that money into the account that the agreement specifies. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images) The Diamondbacks have been responsible for repairs to Chase Field since 2018, though the public gets only a limited look at how they use money that is supposed to be set aside for that purpose. (Norm Hall/Getty Images) >> p 7 | NEWS | | NEWS |
