Photo by Madelaine Braggs, Rose Law Group Reporter
By Caitlin Sievers | AZ Mirror
The Arizona Senate voted late Thursday night to give half a billion dollars to the Arizona Diamondbacks for improvements to Chase Field in downtown Phoenix where the major league baseball team plays.
The stadium is owned by a county stadium district, and the team has been fighting with the county for years over who should pay for necessary updates. House Bill 2704 allocates $500 million in sales taxes collected at the stadium over the next 30 years to pay for stadium improvements.
The bill won approval in the state House of Representatives in late February, but soon stalled in the Senate. It was recently revived as part of the legislature’s budget negotiations, and a lengthy list of amendments got the City of Phoenix, which had opposed the original plan, on board.
Those amendments included a limit of $3.5 million on Phoenix’s contribution to stadium upgrades, as well as a statement that it’s the legislature’s intent that the Diamondbacks contribute $250 million. Lawmakers don’t actually have a way to enforce that, but did add a provision requiring the team to pay any remaining debt for the stadium district if the legislature in the future repeals the stadium renovation law because the team failed to pay what it agreed to.
