The Arizona Diamondbacks are enjoying one of their best seasons in the last decade. But not all is well in the Copper State.
The Diamondbacks are in an ongoing dispute with Maricopa County over Chase Field, specifically regarding the millions of dollars needed for stadium repairs. That legal battle reached a critical point Tuesday, as an attorney for club revealed Major League Baseball now is involved and could threaten to relocate the Diamondbacks from their home in downtown Phoenix.
“Major League Baseball … they’re very, very concerned,” attorney Leo Beus said Tuesday, via AZCentral.com. “If Major League Baseball decides they want to create issues for us, there might not be baseball at all in Arizona.”
According to Beus, that concern stems from two recent incidents at Chase Field: a burst sanitation pipe in an office and an air conditioning system failure during a power outage that caused flooding in several areas throughout the stadium before a game. He added that MLB engineers will visit the field soon to evaluate it for safety.
“We’d like to keep the franchise in place, we’d like to make peace with Major League Baseball, not that we’re at war,” Beus said. “We don’t know where that’s going to come out. They’re very concerned.”
Maricopa County, which leases the stadium to the Diamondbacks, believes the stadium’s issues are overblown; an attorney representing the county argued the team is dramatizing Chase Field’s problems to paint the county as a poor landlord.
“This (lawsuit) has nothing to do with the water leaks and the merits of Chase Field,” attorney Cameron Antigue said. “The Diamondbacks are the facility manager. When a pipe breaks, that is a Diamondbacks problem. And that is, in fact, what happened. They got out the mops and they mopped it up, and life goes on. It’s a big facility and sometimes pipes break. So what?”
For now, this looks like a back-and-forth between lawyers about who’s on the hook for Chase Field’s maintenance costs. But now that MLB is involved, that battle could have serious consequences.
Thumbnail photo via Matt Kartozian/USA TODAY Sports Images
