By Gary Nelson
The Arizona Republic
Mesa’s top leaders have become directly involved in talks aimed at allowing Arizona State University’s baseball team to use the new Chicago Cubs stadium.
The deal has been in the works for more than a year and was approved in principle by the Arizona Board of Regents last October.
Negotiations have on occasion devolved into bitterness. In June, ASU President Michael Crow lambasted Cubs officials in a public e-mail to Mesa Mayor Scott Smith, accusing the team of reneging on terms that ASU thought had already been agreed to.
Cubs officials have declined to comment about the talks on the record, other than to say they still hope a deal can come together.
The Mesa City Council met in executive session Thursday morning to discuss the ASU-Cubs negotiations and a pending agreement for the Oakland Athletics to use Mesa’s Hohokam Stadium beginning in 2015, after the Cubs move out.
