Quote:
Originally Posted by OKCDevil
I'm an ASU guy and have been following that. Long story short, it fell apart because of the Cubs. That's OK. I didn't want their jinx on the ASU program anyway. But it shows that ASU could be open to a partnership. Wells Fargo is 40 years old next year and beyond outdated. A new arena could be something they want to pursue as they're in the middle of designing a plan to replace Sun Devil Stadium.
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Yes, on the other end, I've heard the Cubs' ownership made excessive demands that totally scuttled the deal. The owners are kind of cheap and greedy (slow to lower ticket prices despite being in a recession and fielding some horrible teams). They are willing to renovate Wrigley Field with $300M of their own money (because the city doesn't want to publically finance it given how their former mayor screwed the city over with a crappy parking meter lease where the company made out like bandits and when they approached an Illinois state sports lending commission, they demanded so much money, it would have left nothing for the White Sox & Bulls/Blackhawks and in the next 10-15 years, their stadiums are going to be hitting the age where they need renovations), but they want the city to lift the landmark status on the ballpark so they have a freer hand. But that's unlikely because Soldier Field (Bears) lost its landmark status when the team dropped a UFO on it. Wrigley is the oldest intact sports stadium in the Chicago Area. In short, the Cubs owners like making big demands and acting like they own the place, but they are paper tigers. Mesa had reasonable demands, the Cubs did not.
By the way, the White Sox & Dodgers are the two teams who play at Camelback Ranch in Glendale (well, I've heard it's not in Glendale, just that they foot the bill for it). If Glendale faces further trouble, it would be interesting to see what happens out there, if both teams try to relocate around the Cactus League (Dodgers are so rich, they can probably buy out Camelback Ranch, heck, probably all of Glendale if they so chose and even have enough left over to build an all-new arena in Scottsdale complete with a fleet of 10 gold-plated zambonis to smooth the ice).
