MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred is worried Coyotes rejected arena will foil the Diamondbacks future stadium deal in Phoenix.
Could the Arizona Diamondbacks succumb to the same fate as the Arizona Coyotes?
The Diamondbacks lease for Chase Field in Phoenix ends in 2027 and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred hopes that the team could reach a new stadium deal.
“Whenever you get near the end of a lease, you get yourself into a situation where what I regard to be public assets — right, a stadium is a public asset — there’s going to need to be updating,” Manfred said Thursday.
“I think that Ken Kendrick has indicated a willingness to fulfill his side of sort of the public/private partnership to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars,” Manfred said. “I’m hopeful that whatever went on with the Coyotes is not an indication of a lack of public support to fulfill the public part of that partnership to keep the Arizona facility a first-class major league facility.”
It's unclear whether Diamondbacks managing general partner Ken Kendrick prefers a renovation of Chase Field or an entirely new ballpark for the franchise.
On May 16, the city of Tempe voted no on three propositions that would bring a Sports and Entertainment District headlined by an arena for the Coyotes.
Now the Coyotes future in the Valley is in limbo but NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has made clear that he is committed to finding a permanent home for the team in Arizona.
“It's a terrific market and there are a lot of sports fans there,” Bettman said. "It's a growing market and it's one of the larger markets in North America.
“We're at the stage now where the League, ownership, our teams are strong and we're in a better position to resist moving than maybe we were 20 or 30 years ago, and we want to make sure we explore all options at this stage at where we are before consider having to relocate a club, and I'm hopeful we won't have to.”