Spring-training stadium at Salt River

Valley tribe will build spring site for D-Backs

Move from Tucson is set for 2011

By Peter CorbettThe Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies plan to move spring training from Tucson to a new baseball stadium on the Salt River Reservation in 2011 in a deal being touted as a local job generator and a tourism boon for the Valley tribal community.

Under the agreement announced Thursday by the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, the tribe will fund, build and operate an 11,000-seat stadium and 12 practice facilities on 140 acres northwest of Loop 101 and Indian Bend Road, just east of Scottsdale.

Already, however, there are storm clouds on the horizon. Tucson threatened legal action if the Diamondbacks abandon their current spring-training roost in the Old Pueblo.

The proposed new complex, with a price tag estimated at more than $100 million, will be the first Major League Baseball facility built on Indian land. More details are expected to be unveiled next week.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Tribe to Build Baseball Complex?

Below:  "D-Backs pitchers and catchers work on conditioning beneath the scoreboard at Tucson Electric Park at the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson on Feb. 17, 2009. The D-Backs will hold spring training the Valley for the first time in 2011." (David Wallace/The Arizona Republic)