ASU Baseball Ends Stadium Negotiations With Chicago Cubs

The Arizona State baseball team announced today that they have ended negotiations with the Chicago Cubs on a combined ASU/Chicago baseball facility. It was reported a few months back, that ASU baseball and the Cubs would share a new baseball stadium in Mesa located at the southeast corner of the 101 and 202 freeways.

However, according to a release sent out this morning, ASU and the Cubs have ended negotiations and Arizona State is moving forward with other options for their baseball program.

"While ASU appreciates the effort of Mesa Mayor Scott Smith and his staff, it has become increasingly clear, following a lengthy negotiating process that we cannot partner with the Chicago Cubs," ASU athletics said in a statement.

The stadium was set to hold 15,000 fans and include a video board,improved concessions and restrooms and luxury suites.

The Sun Devils were set to share the playing field with the Cubs during spring training, as well as seven full-size practice fields. The Sun Devils were going to have their own clubhouse.

Here is the full statement by Sun Devil Athletics.

“After many months of negotiation, ASU regrets that the effort to have the ASU baseball team play in the new Cubs stadium in Mesa has failed. The university approached the talks enthusiastically and readily accepted the deal as originally outlined. But as the new Cubs management changed the original deal points and added new issues to the negotiation, the new terms became far too costly to the university, imposed too many restrictions on ASU’s use of the facility and exposed the university to too great a level of financial liability for the entire complex. We wish to thank the City of Mesa, in particular, Mayor Scott Smith and his staff for the enormous effort the city made to bring the two sides together. We also want to assure ASU baseball fans that the university will immediately start pursing other stadium options.”