Maricopa County leaders extend deadline for possible Arizona D-backs stadium sale
Oct 25, 2016, 8:10 AM | Updated: 12:23 pm
PHOENIX — The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors extended the deadline for a group of private investors interested in buying the Arizona Diamondbacks’ baseball stadium.
Negotiations for potential buyers of Chase Field in downtown Phoenix had been set to end Oct. 31. The date has been moved to Jan. 16.
The supervisors agreed Monday to delay the deadline to afford groups more time to make a deal. The Phoenix Business Journal named Stadium Real Estate Partners LLC as one of the groups.
The county owns the stadium and said the minimum purchase price it would consider was $60 million.
The Diamondbacks have said that the stadium needed $187 million in repair work and that county hasn’t lived up to its part of the lease.
But the team also said it they would like to stay downtown.
Diamondbacks president Derrick Hall said the team wants “to remain in downtown Phoenix and we would like nothing better than for that to occur at Chase Field, if that is possible.”
County officials want to avoid mounting repair costs they believe taxpayers cannot or should not be required to pay.
The stadium opened to great fanfare in 1998. County taxpayers spent about $250 million on its construction.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
