 I’m not going to lie. I love Tucson and hate the Phoenix area (aka “The
Valley”), so I didn’t take it very well when the Sox announced that
they would attempt an early exit from their Spring Training lease at
Tucson Electric Park (“TEP”) and move into a new facility in Glendale,
which they will share with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The target date for
the move is Spring 2009, but construction delays and the Sox inability
to find a replacement tenant at TEP could push things back a year or
more.
My previous article
explained the numerous wonders of Tucson and the surrounding desert. By
comparison, The Valley has little to offer beyond more traffic, more
strip malls, and more walled sub-divisions. The entire area is
reminiscent of Orland Park or Schaumberg or Oak Brook + 40 degrees.
Of course lots of people disagree, mostly because they enjoy the
suburb-like experience and long to spend their evenings drinking in
chain bars in strip malls. To each his own.
Nonetheless, most Tucson detractors list their favorite spots in The
Valley as some combination of Scottsdale, Mesa, and Tempe. All of these
are located in the East Valley, while Glendale is located in the West
Valley. The Phoenix area is sprawling and, in typical traffic
conditions, the two areas are separated by a 45-minute drive past
downtown Phoenix.
Despite my reservations, I spent a few days scouting the location of
the new Sox / Dodgers facility. It turns out that there isn’t much to
see. As noted, construction delays have put the Spring 2009 target date
in question and caused the Dodgers and Sox to publicly question the
direction of the project. As it stands, the site is a vacant lot
surrounded by many other vacant lots and across the street from
(surprise!) a walled sub-division. Some preliminary work to prepare the
site has begun. There are absolutely no retail facilities of any kind
in the immediate area, though there is a rather large landfill and a
general aviation airport. It would be no exaggeration to call this part
of Gleandale a wasteland at this point, though that’s sure to change.
The nearest evidence of civilization is about two miles northeast of
the site, where Glendale has tried to develop a sports and
entertainment mega-complex of sorts. Significantly, this area contains
University of Phoenix Stadium, which hosted the most recent Super Bowl
and is home to the Arizona Cardinals. Adjacent to the football stadium
is Jobing.com Area, a multi-purpose venue that hosts the Phoenix
Coyotes of the NHL.
The complex also contains the only full-service hotel in the immediate area--the brand new Renaissance
Hotel and Spa. It’s a nice hotel with a great courtyard bar, but it
pales in comparison to the Sox current Spring hotel--Starr Pass Resort
in Tucson Mountain Park. The Valley has a few resorts that roughly are comparable to Starr Pass but, again, they’re located on the complete opposite side of town in the East Valley.
 The final piece of the puzzle is Westgate
City Center, a mid-sized shopping mall with enough chain bars and
fountains per square foot to make Las Vegas seem quaint. The
development is still in its infancy. For every retail establishment,
there presently is one giant obnoxious billboard and about 147 parking
spaces in the surrounding lots, but they plan to add more stores and
scores of condos. The BBQ joint in the mall actually is quite good . . . but it’s not good enough to bring me back to The Valley.
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