The Arizona Senate passed House Bill 2704 aiming to fund Chase Field renovations late Thursday night. While Diamondbacks president and CEO Derrick Hall sees the clouds parting for the D-backs to find a long-term solution for their home, he believes some of the 11 dissenting voters in the Senate continue to misunderstand how the funding will be used.
“(The money’s) not going to us. It’s going into a building that is a public asset,” Hall told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show on Friday. “So I feel good about where we’re at.”
The bill would reinvest sales taxes collected at the ballpark back into renovations, so Hall pushed back on the idea that taxpayers uninterested in the MLB team would be forced to pay for Chase Field’s upkeep.
Chase Field is owned by the Maricopa County Stadium District, and the Diamondbacks’ lease runs out in 2027.
The state Senate voted to approve the bill, 19-11.
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If the legislation next passes a vote in the House, which previously approved it before the Senate’s amendments, and then gets the OK from Gov. Katie Hobbs, the MLB club would then have to take the next steps of coming to a new lease agreement with Maricopa County,
Hall said the term “fancy shmancy” was used Thursday to describe renovations the team had planned once acquiring the funding.
“Well of course we would,” the CEO said, noting fan experience is a top priority before pointing out most of the planned renovations are in areas fans wouldn’t notice.
“It’s not fan-facing. It’s infrastructure. It’s fixing the HVAC, it’s fixing the plumbing, it’s putting up new scoreboards and sound systems,” Hall said. “So those things are going to happen, but if we can improve it so we can generate more revenue and we can compete more on the field, of course we need to do that.”
The fight for it to fully pass isn’t over yet.
What’s next in Chase Field bill process?
The amended legislation will head back to the Arizona House of Representatives before it can land on Hobbs’ desk to sign into law or veto. The House has adjourned until Monday.
The House passed the bill 35-25 on Feb. 26, before the legislation was amended during its extended stay in the Senate.
Amendments approved by the Senate include the removal of income taxes for employees at the stadium that would have been used to fund the stadium projects. The changes also capped what the local government would contribute — $500 million that will be adjusted yearly for inflation. The total funding will be boosted by the D-backs’ $250 million in contributions.
Another change increased the county’s tax investment into the stadium to match the city’s.
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