Could the Diamondbacks Actually Leave Arizona?

As the 2027 Chase Field lease expiration draws closer without a deal in sight, all options seem to be on the tabe, including relocation.

Apr 16, 2024; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; General view of Chase Field during a game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Chicago Cubs. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-Imagn Images / Matt Kartozian-Imagn Images

The ongoing saga of the Arizona Diamondbacks' troubles with the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors exploded into public acrimony late on Tuesday. The negotiations over a lease extension for Chase Field once again fell upon the rocky shoals of who is going to pay for what going forward.

With a lease that expires at the end of the 2027 season, and no extension deal in sight, it's legitimate to question the team's future not only in downtown Phoenix, but in the state in general.

On numerous occasions the team has made veiled threats about the possibility of relocating outside the state. In February team owner Ken Kendrick said that there were other cities that covet an MLB team and time may be running out to make a deal with county.

Related Content: D-backs Still Far Away from a Stadium Deal

More recently, President and CEO Derrick Hall gave the following quote to theSports Business Journal in response to the Arizona Coyotes relocation, as well as the bombshell news that the Utah House approved $900 million to attract a major league team.

“It woke a lot of people up and showed just how easily a team can be lured away,” said Hall. “I can never see us leaving the area, but if there is a market out there that is very aggressive, you never know what extent they’ll go to acquire a team.”

Chase Field needs hundreds of millions of dollars in renovations in order to remain a viable major league stadium. In recent years the roof has become inoperable while fans are in the stands. Unable to safely close the roof with fans in the stands, a rainstorm during a March exhibition game caused the first ever rainout in Chase Field history.

The downtown air cooling system that the team relies on is out of date and no longer able to keep up with the ever-hotter summers in Phoenix.

And those are just some of the issues that can be easily seen. Behind the scenes there are millions of dollars of "guts" maintenance and upgrades to plumbing and electrical systems, elevators, etc that have been stretched beyond their expected use.

And none of those issues even touch on the team's desire to have a "State of the Art Facility" that includes upgraded and expanded suite options and other bells and whistles to the aging ballpark. The team also wishes to establish an entertainment district in the area immediately surrounding Chase Field, a project that would require hundreds of millions in investment.

A previous lawsuit between the team and county was settled in 2018. The result of that lawsuit was that the team was supposed to shoulder most of the responsibility for maintenance and upkeep in exchange for greater control over the facility. But clearly much of that work has not been done. The team did install a new sound and light system this past offseason however.

After much back and forth over the summer the county made a counter proposal recently that was rejected by the team in the harshest of terms. In a statement reported by the Arizona Republic, Hall said the proposal was neither "serious or logical." They claim the county is not willing to give the team any assistance. The rejection from the team also brings in a personal and political angle to the negotiations.

"The truth and fairness matter here, and bizarre attacks like this do not represent the way our partners should do business," the team said. "It is clear for all to see that this was a bomb-throwing tactic from a chairman who lost his primary and two other outgoing members who will not be part of future talks."

Team President and CEO Derrick Hall doubled down on the rhetoric while on the Bickley and Marotta show on Arizona Sports 98.7 radio Thursday morning, stating he does not "see a deal in sight." See the below video for Hall's full interview, stating his and the team's side of the story.

Without a deal in sight, and the two sides miles apart with the clock ticking down on the lease expiration, where does the team go from here, both figuratively and literally?

If the money is not there to do $500 million worth of renovations without significant assistance from the County and taxpayer, the financing to build a new $2 billion stadium is definitely not there. Any notion of the team building a stadium and entertainment district on Tribal Lands with tribal funding is unrealistic, as the team would not be willing to give up the type of stadium revenue they do at Salt River Fields, for example.

Salt Lake City is certainly a possibility. Big League Utah is just such an aggressive entity that Hall alluded to. They are willing to either take on a team that is looking to relocate, or bring in an expansion franchise.

The D-backs previously looked into other cities, including Las Vegas, which made headlines when leaked out a number of years back prior to the pandemic. But the Oakland A's have a tentative deal to relocate to the Las Vegas Strip if they can ever get a stadium approved. They'll play in Sacramento in the meantime.

Other potential MLB expansion cities that could be the targets of a relocation effort are Nashville, Montreal, Charlotte, San Antonio and Portland.

It seems unlikely that MLB would allow the Diamondbacks to leave Arizona however, not at least without some arrangement to relocate or expand with another franchise here in the Valley. The Phoenix metro area is just too important a market for MLB to abandon.

There remains the possibility of Kendrick and his partners selling to another entity. As unlikely as that may seem, he is 81 years old, and will be nearing his 85th birthday when the lease expires. If the Diamondbacks are not able to resolve their stadium issue by early 2025, which is the "deadline" proffered by Hall in the video below, then all possibilities, including relocation or a franchise sale could be on the table.