Tucson’s rich baseball history waits for its next chapter as the city efforts baseball’s return to minor league and spring training games. (Photo by Ethan Desjardine/Cronkite News)
TUCSON – Just 15 minutes south of downtown Tucson lies the Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium, an 11,000-seat venue built in 1998 and kept in pristine condition within the Kino Sports Complex. However, despite the city’s rich history in baseball, the complex now stands vacant of any Major League Baseball team or affiliate.
As of July 2023, Tucson’s population exceeds 547,000. To outsiders, it might come as a surprise that a city of this size and once a well-known baseball hub, now lacks MLB-affiliated teams – but that wasn’t always the case.
On March 8, 1946, Tucson hosted the first MLB spring training game in Arizona at Hi Corbett Field, featuring the Cleveland Indians and New York Giants. Over the next six decades, Tucson hosted Cactus League games and served as a spring training home for teams like the Chicago White Sox, Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks.
Tucson was also home to minor league teams, including the Triple-A Sidewinders, who played in the city until 2008. Hi Corbett Field housed spring training for the Cleveland Indians until 1992, when they relocated to the Grapefruit League in Florida.
Despite its modern facilities, by 2011, all MLB spring training teams had left Tucson, and the last affiliated minor league team, the Tucson Padres, departed after the 2013 season.
In 2008, the Chicago White Sox paid $5 million to terminate their lease at Tucson Electric (renamed the Kino Sports Complex in 2010) and relocate to a new spring training facility in Glendale, which they would share with the Los Angeles Dodgers. That same year, the Sidewinders left Tucson for Reno, Nevada.
The remaining two MLB teams in Tucson, the Diamondbacks and Rockies, soon announced plans to leave as well. By 2011, both teams had relocated their spring training operations to Salt River Fields in Scottsdale.
Today, the complex hosts a variety of sports, entertainment and cultural events. But MLB’s absence has left a noticeable void in Tucson’s sports landscape.
Decline of professional baseball in Tucson
Tucson’s baseball scene has diminished since 2013, with local baseball fans feeling disconnected from the game they love. (Photo by Ethan Desjardine/Cronkite News)
For the past 10-plus years, losing professional baseball has hurt Tucson, from the local community to the resulting economic impacts.
Shelley Duncan, the former University of Arizona baseball star was raised in Tucson and still lives in the city during the winters. He played seven MLB seasons from 2007-2013 for the New York Yankees, Indians, and Tampa Bay Rays and has seen how the loss of baseball has affected his hometown firsthand.
“I do remember the time when spring training was in Tucson, it was buzzing, businesses were buzzing, restaurants, industry was buzzing, and baseball was a huge driving factor behind that,” Duncan said.
Between 2011 and 2013, after losing the Rockies, White Sox and Diamondbacks, Tucson’s hotel revenue in March averaged about $34.8 million, according to Smith Travel Research. The number marked a substantial dip from 2007, a time in which all three teams still resided in the city, where hotel revenue peaked at $49 million.
“Unfortunately there’s only about 30 games a year, instead of 7–75 games and 30 more spring training,” Duncan said. “We’re missing out on a huge opportunity by not giving baseball a real shot in our community.
“It hurts businesses, it hurts hotel numbers, it hurts restaurants, the service industry. When you have a thriving service industry you have cash just going around the city, and that makes the city stronger.”
Local heroes and community efforts
Few people are as connected, and understand the importance of baseball within the community of Tucson as Duncan, who played at Canyon del Oro High School along with former MLB All-Star second baseman Ian Kinsler.
At Arizona, Duncan set multiple school records in career home runs (55) and single-season home runs (24), both of which still stand today.
“What the community has given me when I was little, from little league on to high school coaches and everybody in the town, it wanted me to give back if I ever had that opportunity to give back to the community in terms of helping the sport,” Duncan said.
Duncan has done just in effort to bring the community back together around baseball. For nearly a decade, he hosted the Tucson Youth Baseball Experience at Kino Sports Complex to grow and promote youth baseball in Tucson.
Duncan knew the city needed baseball without spring training or minor league teams, and he began an annual free program to boost baseball’s popularity locally, especially among the youth.
The event educated young players about the game, and brought big-name players back to Tucson, including J.J. Hardy, Kinsler and Adam Kennedy, as well as retired greats like Fergie Jenkins and Tony Phillips.
Hundreds of kids attended, and the numbers continued to grow in size until its final year in 2018.
“Parents loved it, the kids had a great time with it, and it’s possible,” Duncan said, “The sport isn’t dead in this community.”
Duncan strongly believes that building a strong baseball community starts at the lowest level, with families and children, and that Tucson has continued to fall short in that aspect.
“When you talk about building a city, building a community, it all starts with the kids and what you can provide to families,” Duncan said, “When you develop a place where you can raise your kids, where there are things to do that people will come to Tucson rather than you having to always go somewhere else, that’s a place you want to live in.”
George Arias, who also grew up in Tucson and played baseball at Arizona, had a storied professional career in Japan, where he won a Golden Glove and Best Nine Award (given to the best player in the league at each position). Like Duncan, he understands the importance of having a strong local community centered around baseball.
Arias founded the Tucson Champs Youth Baseball Academy to develop young children by utilizing the game of baseball to teach core values and life skills.
“I take pride in Tucson and trying to make Tucson the best we can – that’s one of the reasons I created my academy to go compete against Phoenix,” Arias said.
Today, Phoenix has become the central point of youth baseball in Arizona. And ever since the movement of spring training and minor league baseball out of Tucson, the community has been at a loss, according to Arias.
“I think it’s a huge loss for us, kids have dreams of playing in major leagues, and when you take that environment and move everything to Phoenix, we feel as Tucson as the ‘second stepchild,” Arias said.
Jerry Stitt, who was both an assistant and head coach at Arizona from 1979-2002, also reminisces on the effects losing professional baseball has had on the local community.
“You have to go to Phoenix to see the Diamondbacks,” Stitt said. “We used to just go to Kino to see the Diamondbacks A club and the Sidewinders. It was a great atmosphere and It’s no longer there.”
The Kino Sports Complex: A controversial legacy
Recent growth near Kino Sports Complex inspires renewed hope of bringing professional baseball back to Tucson. (Photo by Ethan Desjardine/Cronkite News)
Most people familiar with professional baseball during the early 2000s to 2010s in Tucson, and spring training’s subsequent move to Maricopa County, will point a finger at the Kino Sports Complex for not finding a way to keep the sport alive.
When the complex was built, the idea was to have a stadium within a 30-minute drive for most Tucsonians, but the location seemed to have the opposite effect of attracting more fans.
“It’s more south side that people east and north don’t want to come this way, and that could be a root of it too, whether people want to admit it or not,” Arias said.
The area surrounding the venue was significantly underdeveloped, and there was not much to do around the facility, unlike most other successful minor league ballparks.
“All around the country you are seeing success in baseball stadiums that are being built in downtown areas, and that was kind of in the middle of nowhere, and there is no history of success of stadiums built like that around the country,” Duncan said.
Throughout the 10 years that Kino hosted spring training, attendance fell below expectations.
“They want to look at the attendance of games at Kino and attribute it to the lack of popularity of baseball, but most of it is that there is nothing to do out there, no businesses, nowhere for people to hang out, and it’s a long way for people to get there,” Duncan said.
According to Duncan, FC Tucson, founded in 2011 and based out of Hi Corbett Field, was expected to draw similar interest to baseball, but it hasn’t drawn nearly as much business and interest as baseball did.
Recent developments and future prospects
Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium struggled to attract fans during baseball’s height in Tucson due to its location and lack of surrounding development. (Photo by Ethan Desjardine/Cronkite News)
Blake Eager, executive director of Southern Arizona Sports, Tourism and Film Authority, says Kino isn’t a lost cause, however, and truly believes that baseball can make a triumphant return to the city. Development around Kino has grown, and new shopping and restaurants have appeared since the departure of professional baseball.
Before the new developments, baseball fans would come to see a game, then have to return home. But In the past five years, there has been significant change.
Across from Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium sits new restaurants such as In-And-Out Burger, Rudy’s BBQ and Raising Canes. New hotels have been built that can accommodate fans and youth travel teams, and minutes down E Ajo Way lies a brand new Dave and Busters arcade.
Work also began on Oct. 22 on Tucson’s first billion-dollar project, the Mosiac Quarter, which is across the interstate from the Kino Baseball Stadium. An underpass is also being constructed that will go underneath I-10, and connect the original Kino Complex to the new construction. These developments should help boost the economy in the area and bring new businesses.
While clear mistakes were made in the past, times have changed.
“If we had a time machine to go back and the question was asked, ‘Is this the best location?’ the answer would probably be no, but that doesn’t mean it’s the wrong location now,” Eager said.
Eager, along with Edgar Soto, chairman of Southern Arizona Sports Tourism and Film Authority, are constantly working to bring back baseball to any extent to Tucson, and have been for years now.
The push for its return is centered on Tucson’s rich baseball legacy and a fanbase that is eager to welcome it. Tucson is one of the fastest developing areas in southern Arizona, and both Eager and Soto believe having professional baseball in the city would lead to economic growth but not without potential roadblocks.
Challenges and opportunities for baseball’s return
On March 8, 1946, in Tucson, Hi Corbett Field became the site of Arizona’s first MLB spring training game. (Photo by Ethan Desjardine/Cronkite News)
Bringing some form of baseball, even in the form of a week-long event, would help to reinvigorate a fanbase that once existed, and that currently only exists in some components with Arizona baseball.
Yet, bringing professional baseball back to a permanent home in Tucson requires significantly more financial challenges, as does bringing a professional team to any city.
Soto acknowledged that they are “working hard to bring a team to Tucson in some fashion,” but it is important to be careful about burdening the local taxpayers.
“It’s a balancing act,” Soto highlights, “You want to bring these things in but you don’t want to do it at the cost of our taxpayers. A lot of these teams and stadiums come at the expense of taxpayers. We have to do things that will have a positive ROI.”
Another hurdle is the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic significantly limited the number of minor league teams available, and many teams were forced to shut down, so options are more limited than ever.
Cultural significance of baseball in Tucson
Baseball’s return to Tucson would represent more than an economic boost, however. It would be a cultural resurgence.
“Every time that I was either hitting the road or speaking at a speaking engagement talking to the public about what we are doing, the first question out of everyone’s mouth is, ‘When are you going to bring professional baseball back?’” Eager said. “It’s so ingrained in our DNA in southern Arizona that any form of high-level professional baseball would be extremely successful.”
Eager and others believe Tucson is ready to maintain and support the return of a professional baseballl team, but he also stress the importance of avoiding previous mistakes and ensuring that if a team were to return, it would be embraced.
“I feel like southern Arizona has really learned its lesson,” Soto said, “I think we would make a bigger effort to make sure we show up for these teams so they won’t leave again, and we have to continue to do what we can to make it a positive for both the professional teams and the community.”
Returning spring training to Tucson is likely unrealistic, with Maricopa County’s Cactus League featuring new facilities and less travel times between venues. Still, the return of minor league ball is very much in play.
“The thought process is when the MLB does decide to expand to two more teams, which would most likely be Salt Lake and Nashville, we would go after one of their Triple-A teams, or a team to be here,” Eager said.
Eager wants the league to remember that Tucson still has a stadium that meets all MLB standards and that there is a fanbase itching for the revival of professional baseball.
And with the efforts of local heroes and the growing enthusiasm for baseball’s return, the city remains tied to the game and eager for a new chapter in its baseball story.
“We have a rabid fanbase that would go to games and show the ability to sustain the presence of a professional team if given so, we want to get back to our identity of what it was 60 years ago.” Eager reminisced, “We are a professional baseball town.”