Diamondbacks’ Kendrick: Club willing to spend ‘hundreds of millions’ on ballpark

As the team continues to explore possibilities when it comes to its future home, Diamondbacks Managing General Partner Ken Kendrick said the organization is prepared to spend “hundreds of millions of dollars” either in renovating Chase Field or in the cost of building a new ballpark.

“We're not looking for a handout,” Kendrick said.

In a session with reporters on Monday, the day of the team’s first full-squad spring training workout, Kendrick and Derrick Hall, the team’s president and CEO, called the stadium issue complex and challenging, saying they would like to find a solution that offers a mixed-use model that could include a hotel, restaurants and/or office space surrounding the ballpark.

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Kendrick said the increased revenue that would come with a new or updated stadium would go right back into the product on the field.

“That's why you would want a new stadium,” he said. “You would get increased revenues and I can assure you, if the increase in revenues is there, the payroll will increase. And we’re increasing it already, we’re just not increasing at the rate that some are.”

In an interview last month, Hall put the price tag of a renovation of Chase Field in the $400 million-$500 million range, adding that a new facility would cost “more than double that.” The stadium, formerly known as Bank One Ballpark, opened in 1998 and is the fourth-oldest facility in the National League.

Two years ago, a Diamondbacks’ attorney wrote a bill that was enacted into law that allows for a special tax “district.” If activated, it would create a new tax on fans at Chase Field, with the money generated going toward renovation and development.

“In order for it to work, you have to implement taxes on your fans and that’s what we would want to avoid as much as possible,” Hall said. “You don’t want your best fans and customers to pay for it when, if you can have a partnership with city, county, state, what we’re willing to put in, there’s a pathway.”

Hall described a variety of improvements that he would like to see in the event the club were to remain at Chase Field, saying the ballpark needs more “premium areas.” He talked about expanding the field-level club located behind home plate.

“(We need) some of the more attractive offerings that you see in the newer ballparks, whether it’s four-tops or more private-type sitting and boxes,” Hall said. “We need to renovate our luxury boxes, as well, create new clubs. There’s so much that we need to do.

“When we’re ready for that, it’s going be a matter of bringing in our contractors and architects, but also compare it to, if we had a brand new stadium, what would we be doing differently? And I think we’ve seen that footprint from a lot of the newer ballparks that are doing a great job.”

Hall said a renovation would be a multi-year endeavor, ranging anywhere from three to perhaps seven years, with projects being addressed one at a time, though he said some improvements, like a new video board or sound system, could be “done relatively quickly and without any interruption in play or in experience at all.”

As far as a new facility, Hall said the team continues to explore possibilities in Maricopa County — “There’s been some interested parties,” he said — and would like to have closure this summer. The team’s lease at Chase Field runs through the 2027 season.

“We're prepared to put a lot of owner dollars into our next stadium situation, whether it be the downtown setting or perhaps a ballpark somewhere in the Valley that would be a brand new one,” Kendrick said. “A lot of energy has been spent over several years and trying to get to a place where we feel we can do something that is economically viable for us and good for our fans and we’re not there yet. I hope we will be soon.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kendrick: Dbacks willing to spend ‘hundreds of millions’ on ballpark