Think Blue: Dodgers

GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) ― The Los Angeles Dodgers appear to be headed to the Phoenix suburbs for spring training after nearly 60 years in Vero Beach, a small Florida city that wrapped its identity around the baseball team.

The Glendale City Council approved a memorandum of understanding with the Dodgers and the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday. The decision will allow the city to apply to the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority to help pay for a shared stadium.

If approved, the Dodgers will be leaving the Dodgertown Sports & Conference Center, their spring training home since 1948 -- nine years before the team moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. The switch to the desert would take effect in 2009.

"I love Vero Beach," said Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda, who is in his 57th season with the Dodgers. "Vero Beach was a great, great, great, great spring training complex. I thought it was the best complex in all of baseball. But I think it's time to come out here and establish ourselves in Arizona."

Lasorda said the move will make traveling for spring training easier for the team and fans.

Vero Beach Mayor Thomas White said losing the Dodgers is disappointing.

"We just hate to lose them because it's been a good tradition over all these years," White said. "They're just looking to make a dollar, I'm sure."

But White said the Dodgers have agreed to turn their part of Dodgertown over to the city, rather than selling it and risk having it razed by a developer, and the Dodgers also are helping Vero Beach find another team to take their place.

"They're being a good friend to this city and county before they leave," he said. "They're not going to go and mess everything up on us."

If the Sports and Tourism Authority approves funding for the stadium, the White Sox would be leaving Pima County, where they have shared Tucson Electric Park with the Arizona Diamondbacks since 1998.

Pima County Supervisor Ramon Valadez said the White Sox's move to Glendale "could devastate spring training in Pima County" since the team draws more fans than the Arizona Diamondbacks or the Triple-A Tucson Sidewinders.

Valadez said in order for the deal to go through, the White Sox have to find a replacement team -- and not just any team.

Roland Hemond, executive adviser to the general manager of the White Sox, said the team will find an acceptable replacement club.

Moving the team to Glendale is a logical decision, according to Hemond.

"We have a stronger Chicago fan base here," he said. "We feel that we would draw more people here than we do in Tucson. And also to join with the Dodgers -- a storied franchise that will draw a lot of people to Glendale, as well -- I can foresee that we will set some attendance records in Arizona."

A potential site for the spring training complex is located just across a major freeway from the University of Phoenix Stadium, home to the NFL's Arizona Cardinals, the Fiesta Bowl, the 2007 BCS college football national championship game and the 2008 Super Bowl. Jobing.com Arena, home of the NHL's Phoenix Coyotes, is just across the street from the Cardinals' stadium.

The estimated $80 million spring training complex would include 12,000 seats, 42,000-square-foot team clubhouses, an 18-hole golf course, and more than one million square feet of commercial, office, retail, and dining facilities.

Glendale spokeswoman Julie Frisoni said the Sports and Tourism Authority would fund two-thirds of the cost.

Meanwhile, the city of Goodyear and the Cleveland Indians also are seeking money from the Sports and Tourism Authority to build a $77.5 million spring training stadium.

The state will hold a public hearing Friday to begin considering the Goodyear/Indians' proposal.

Glendale Mayor Elaine Scruggs said she's confident the Sports and Tourism Authority will approve funding for Glendale's stadium.

"Obviously we're very, very excited about this project that will add to what has already been created in western Glendale, and that is a sports and entertainment destination unlike any place in the state of Arizona," she said.

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