Brewers pitch moving training camp home to a new facility in Gilbert

PHOENIX - The Milwaukee Brewers are exploring moving their spring training home 35 miles southeast to a new facility in Gilbert.

The Major League Baseball team wants Gilbert to build a $90 million baseball facility near Loop 202 at Lindsay and Germann roads, according to emails between consultants and town officials.

“We believe there may be a great deal of community support for the Brewers to relocate in the town of Gilbert,” Bob Quinn, Brewers executive vice president of finance and ad-

ministration, said in a statement.

The Brewers currently train at Maryvale Baseball Park in west Phoenix. Quinn said the team also is working with Phoenix “on a long-term deal to stay in Maryvale.”

The Brewers have been in Maryvale since 1998 but are currently under a year-to-year contract with Phoenix.

Gilbert officials are mum on the proposition. Spokeswoman Dana Berchman said in a statement that the town is not currently negotiating with the team, “so there isn’t anything to discuss at this time.”

“It’s our understanding that they are exploring Gilbert as an option for their new Spring Training facility and we have done some research and had discussions to understand the benefit they could bring to the community,” Berchman said.

Phoenix spokesman Gregg Bach confirmed that city officials are working with the team.

“It’s been a nearly 20-year relationship that we hope to continue, and we very much value that Maryvale Baseball Park is the Brewers’ home for spring training,” Bach said.

David Sellers of LGE Design Build, the development partner, architect and general contractor of the potential Gilbert project, said Gilbert was the first place his company thought of when they learned the Brewers were considering relocation.

“Gilbert currently does not participate in the nearly $900 million economic impact the Cactus League brings to the Valley, yet it has great freeway access, a community that will embrace the Brewers and offers amenities that most cities do not have such as its thriving downtown,” Sellers said in an email.

The proposed Gilbert Ballpark would be about seven miles east of the Brewers’ former spring training facility in Chandler.

The Brewers trained at the now-demolished Compadre Stadium from 1986 to 1997.

The proposed spring training facility would include a 7,500-seat ballpark, six practice fields, a 55,000 square-foot clubhouse, a 10,000 square-foot office and ideally would be open for spring training in 2019, according to a briefing prepared for Gilbert officials.

LGE Design Build also proposed a 13-acre village next to the facility that would include 220 hotel rooms, 85,000 square feet of office space and 50,000 square feet of retail.

Of the 15 Major League teams that train in Arizona, six are on the east side of the Phoenix area.

They are the Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies and San Francisco Giants in Scottsdale; the Chicago Cubs and Oakland Athletics in Mesa; and the Los Angeles Angels in Tempe.