The Arizona Diamondbacks have been negotiating with Maricopa County about extending their lease agreement at Chase Field with the current deal ending in 2027, but the cordial talks took a negative turn this week.
AZCentral published a summary of letters from this week that show suddenly contentious exchanges between the D-backs and the county. Maricopa County sent a counteroffer that Diamondbacks CEO and president Derrick Hall in a private reply called “extremely offensive.”
Hall confirmed Thursday to Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta the relationship has taken a sour turn in the past week. In fact, he said he now doesn’t “see a deal in sight” with the current lease expiring in 2027.
“It was definitely the offer, the counterproposal, which is in my words ridiculous,” Hall said of what offended him. “But also the fact that they went public with it. I don’t understand it. For quite some time, I’ve used words like ‘encouraging, optimistic.’ Those words are gone, for sure. And it’s sad.
“I mean, they decided to go public with this rather than to do what we’ve done all along, quietly, privately, respectfully. You go attorney to attorney, it stays confidential. They then send us a response and a counter and make it public and it goes into the media, and that’s just their side of the situation.”
Read more of this story from Arizona Sports online here.
