D-backs execs to fans: Please lobby state legislators to give us $500m in tax money, no pressure

It’s been a few weeks since we’ve heard much about the proposed Arizona Diamondbacks stadium renovation subsidy bill, and apparently that’s because it’s been spinning its wheels a bit. Earlier this month, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego declared the original plan — which would redirect between $400 million and $500 million in sales in income taxes to team owner Ken Kendrick — “deeply troubling” but said she hoped “we are close to a more fiscally responsible bill”; the legislation is currently stuck in the state senate appropriations committee, which met last week but didn’t discuss it. Now, with the state legislative session winding down, team officials have apparently turned up the heat by trying to get D-backs fans to lobby the senate on their behalf:

Friday morning, Diamondbacks season ticket holders received an email from team president and CEO Derrick Hall with the subject line: “Help Us Keep the D-backs in Arizona.” In it, Hall thanked fans who have reached out about how to support House Bill 2704, which would capture some sales and income tax revenue to pay for major stadium upgrades. Noting there “is absolutely no pressure,” he also gently nudged other fans to take up the cause.

Hall’s email directed season ticket holders to a site called Keep Arizona Major League, which doesn’t exactly threaten that the team will move without stadium subsidies, but doesn’t exactly not threaten that either. “Arizona is a world class state with a world class sports culture. We have to keep it that way,” it declares in large all-caps letters, before insisting, “The Arizona Diamondbacks have consistently said that they don’t plan to leave Arizona and that they would prefer to stay at an upgraded Chase Field. However, we know from experience, seeing the Coyotes moving to Utah, that these things can happen.” The site also argues in not-at-all-ChatGPT-written prose that “even if you’re not a baseball fan, everyone benefits from the Diamondbacks’ location at Chase Field in downtown Phoenix,” asserting that the stadium has generated $5.4 billion in GDP for Arizona over 25 years. (Citation very much needed; all sources for this figure online appear to originate with D-backs officials themselves.)

KeepAZmajorleague.com was created in March by someone who doesn’t want their identity known; listed sponsors include a bunch of local chambers of commerce. The Phoenix New Times article that revealed the email campaign deadpans, “a Diamondbacks spokesperson told Phoenix New Times he would look into the question of the team’s involvement but has not yet provided an answer.”

New Times further reports that while Hall’s email told fans that “the legislature” would be voting on the stadium funding bill “in the next 10 days,” it’s not at all clear that any vote is actually pending. The legislative session is set to wrap up on June 30, and with a whole lot of budget negotiations still to be hashed out, writes news editor Zach Buchanan, “the bill would appear to be trailing in the ninth inning” — oh man, and just when we were so close to getting out of this without a sports metaphor.

One recent development in the bill is that it would set penalties if the Diamondbacks moved out before 2035 — though the penalty is only $10 million, or as Buchanan describes it, “roughly the salary of two mid-tier free-agent relief pitchers.” That does seem deeply troubling; hopefully Arizona residents and Diamondbacks fans can get some more clarity soon on what the legislature is considering, so they can tell their elected representatives what they actually think of it.