The Latest on the Gunfight at the Cactus League Corral

From Paul Sullivan from Chicago Breaking Sports News -

The battle between the Cubs and their fellow Cactus League owners over a proposed ticket surcharge to help fund a new spring training facility in Mesa, Ariz., is expected to heat up this week.

The White Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks are leading the opposition to the "Cubs tax," a surcharge on all Cactus League tickets.

The Cubs have declined to comment on the brewing brouhaha, although Mesa mayor Scott Smith, who has been outspoken in his remarks about Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf's opposition to the surcharge, released a statement Sunday saying the project would benefit the entire Cactus League.

"The Chicago Cubs are far and away the leader in spring-training attendance," Smith said. "They bring in thousands more tourists than any other team in the Cactus League, which creates an economic impact for all of Arizona in excess of $100 million each year. And, the Cubs spread these benefits around. Scottsdale and Phoenix/Tempe get more Cubs tourists in their hotels than Mesa! This is about jobs and tourism dollars that positively benefit this state every year. "

Smith also said he hopes Cactus League teams would meet with him and Arizona House Majority Leader John Comish, who will introduce the legislation on Monday, before opposing the surcharge.
"This is not just a Mesa or Cubs problem," he said. "All teams and cities will reach a point in the future when they too will be faced with the challenge of upgrading facilities that have aged or are obsolete.

"Hopefully, the teams will keep an open mind and discuss honestly how this problem can be resolved so the Cactus League can remain strong and successful. To do otherwise is shortsighted, selfish and foolish. I welcome the opportunity to explain the bill and other proposals to the leaders of any other Cactus League team."

HoHoKam Park, where the Cubs play, is by no means an obsolete ballpark. But it is one of the older facilities remaining in the Cactus League. In December, Cubs president Crane Kenney said the team needed a new facility because Cubs fans may decide to attend their road games at more modern Cactus League ballparks in the future, bypassing HoHoKam.

"You now have 15 teams within 45 minutes of each other, roughly," Kenney told Cubs beat writers. "And facilities like Camelback Ranch (shared by the White Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers) and Goodyear (shared by Cleveland and Cincinnati) are truly state-of-the-art.

"If I go to Arizona and I'm a Cubs fan and I want to see my team, I can choose to either go to Goodyear, Glendale or one of these really neat facilities to see the Cubs play the Reds, or the Indians or the Dodgers or the White Sox. Or I can go to HoHoKam, which is less of a facility.

"So what I worry about in some ways is that people coming to Arizona, (because) it's so easy to get to the Cubs games anywhere they play, that they start attending the away games, because our facility has fallen behind some of the newer stadiums. Part of this is defensive. Yes, we do draw well. But I do worry (that) down the road, will fans say, 'I absolutely want to see the Cubs, I absolutely want to see them in Arizona, but I don't necessarily need to see them in HoHoKam?' So that's part of the reason why (the Cubs need a new facility)."

Because of the controversy surrounding the surcharge, the Arizona legislature is now expected to ask for a special audit by the auditor general of all contracts entered into by the Arizona Tourism and Sports authority during the calendar years of 2008 and '09 to acquire land or construct, finance, furnish, improve, market or promote the use of existing or proposed spring training facilities.

That audit would include the deals that brought the White Sox and Dodgers to Glendale, the Indians and Reds to Goodyear, and the plan to bring the D-backs and Colorado Rockies to a new facility in Scottsdale. The sports authority was created in 2000 to help raise money for the Arizona Cardinals stadium in Glendale, and for Cactus League facilities.