Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies new spring training facility outside Phoenix, saw its first turf last month when West Coast Turf (WCT) installed the first 3 of 15 fields. Approximately 1.4 sq. ft. of sod from WCT’s Salt River sod operation will be eventually installed at the site in time for 2011 MLB spring training.
The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community is partnering with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies to build a Major League Baseball spring training facility on Community land. It is the first Major League Baseball spring training facility to be built on Indian land in the nation.
The multipurpose facility includes an 11,000-seat capacity ballpark, a total of 12 practice fields and office buildings that will include Major and Minor League clubhouses, training facilities, and offices for each team. The site is near Indian Bend Road and the 101 Freeway.
The site for the spring training complex is on 140 acres of scenic landscape that has unmatched views of Camelback Mountain, the McDowell Mountains, Four Peaks, Red Mountain, and the Superstition Mountains.
The site offers the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies a unique opportunity to work collaboratively with a Native American community and to create a stadium and sports complex that showcase cultural diversity and the rich history, culture and artistic values of the Pima and Maricopa Indian tribes.
The estimated price tag is $100 million.-Danielle Marman, West Coast Turf