Eric Sorenson
As plans move forward for Arizona State to renovate 55-year-old Sun Devil Stadium which was first announced last April, the University is searching for a place to host home games during the transition process which is expected to start in 2015.
Tuesday morning it appeared we had an answer.
“While Sun Devil Stadium is being prepared we’re looking forward to playing our games at Chase Field in case you were wondering.” ASU President Dr. Michael Crow told the assembled crowd at Phoenix Municipal Stadium during a press conference announcing ASU baseball will be moving into the venue starting the 2015 season. “That’s the place for us to play going forward.”
It appears, although the venue is the top choice for ASU to play their “home games,” an agreement has yet to be struck with the Arizona Diamondbacks or Maricopa County who owns Chase Field.
“No deal has been finalized and negotiations are ongoing,” a source close to the situation told Pros2Preps.com Tuesday afternoon.
The source also said ASU is negotiating with different venues and a decision isn’t expected any time soon.
Sun Devil Stadium was opened on October 4, 1958. Back then, the capacity was 30,000. Now it’s over 71,000.
The University has been wanting to make some changes and some upgrades to the aging stadium for a while now, and they rolled out their plans for it last April.
ASU Athletic Director Steve Patterson couldn’t nail down a specific date of the move, but he did narrow it down just a bit.
“The quickest we could get in is probably 2015 and be back [at Sun Devil Stadium] in 2016,” Patterson said. “That’s an aggressive timeline, but I’m an aggressive guy.”
The money portion of this project has also been up in the air and Patterson says he and Dr. Crow, along with members of his senior staff, have been meeting regularly and are getting close to having their “plan of finance” together.
“We hope to get our plan in place and move forward rather quickly,” Patterson said.
Phoenix mayor Greg Stanton is 100 percent in support of Patterson’s aggressive mentality toward the stadium renovation.
“I have no reason to think otherwise,” Stanton said. “I know they’ll want to get the renovations done as quick as possible.”
“Sun Devil Stadium is the home of ASU football, and I know that ours is only gonna be a temporary home,” Stanton said. “We’ll work with them as needed to make that program be successful. I have full confidence that our major sports entities, ASU football [and the] Arizona Diamondbacks can work closely together and logistically make it work.”
Ed Cole contributed to this report.
