By Elizabeth Barker
Staff writer
By Elizabeth Barker
Staff writer
At 75, John F. Long is no Kevin Costner, but he does have his field of dreams, a 65-acre parcel near 51st Avenue and Indian School Road that in 1997 could host spring baseball games for two major-league teams.
But Long's dream has taken a lot longer than a two-hour movie to build.
For the past decade, Long tried time and time again to donate land for a west Phoenix stadium; time and time again, he saw politicians opt instead to buy land and put facilities in other parts of the Valley.
John F. Long / The builder says
a spring-training stadium will bear
Maryvale's name, not his.
On Wednesday, all that changed as the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, which doubles as the Stadium District Board, voted 3-2 to provide $17 million over the next 17 years for the west-side stadium and to give $17 million to Mesa to upgrade its facility, which is home to the Chicago Cubs.
The Maryvale facility will most likely be home to the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago White Sox, assuming negotiations with both teams go well. Long said both have shown interest in sharing the stadium.
The Brewers and Chandler have been deadlocked for two years in negotiations to fix Compadre Stadium, the Brewers' spring-training facility. The Brewers wanted $12 million to $14 million of improvements and threatened to move if the city or county didn't act. The Board of Supervisors never voted on the proposal to pay for improvements at Compadre, and chances of Chandler retaining the team appear slim.
Some of those balking at Wednesday's decisions, including a Chandler City Council member, accused the supervisors who voted for the Maryvale and Mesa funding of protecting their own areas' interests.
"I take exception to that," Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox said. "We tried very hard to work with Chandler.
"It wasn't until Chandler threw in the towel and the Brewers started looking for someplace else to play in that the Maryvale site became a possibility."
Wilcox admitted that the apparent inequity -- there are four stadiums on the east side and only one in the west -- may have affected the board's decision, but she said such a concern was secondary.
Wilcox, who has represented Maryvale for 10 years as a councilwoman and supervisor, said she admired Long's tenacity in getting a ballpark for the west side.
She said the Maryvale area has taken some hard knocks that the stadium might soften.
"This has all sorts of possibilities," she said. "It dould revitalize MaryvaIe Mall, which is right across the street; it will put this type of recreation close by so a lot more people can take advantage of it; it'll restore pride to the west side. A lot of the projects John's had a hand in, like Desert West Park and the Blockbuster Desert Sky Pavilion, have done that.
"He's a hero."
Long balked at the compliment, giving credit toothers instead.
"The city folks, the people at the county, those with the teams and all the community members who made sure we all knew this was important to them, this is as much their accomplishment as it is mine," he said.
He said his dogged determination in fighting for a west-side stadium comes from a philosophy he's had since he started developing Maryvale almost 50 years ago.
"You can't just go into an area, build houses and leave," he said. "Because the people buying the homes you build are going to need other things, too, things like schools, parks, hospitals and recreation.
"This means a lot more than baseball in the west. This means Maryvale is on par with the rest of the Valley; it makes it as attractive to fans, tourists and business people as any other area of town."
It's a philosophy Long strongly believes in. Otherwise, he wouldn't gamble $20 million to $25 million on it. The land alone is worth $10 mil- lion, but Long also is fronting the county $10 million to $15 million to build the stadium, which the county will pay back as revenue from a rental-car tax of $2.50 per contract allows it to float more bonds.
Long also plans to build the facility, which will include separate clubhouses for each team. He laughed at the suggestion that the stadium would be named after him.
"John F. Long Stadium? No," he said. "This belongs to Maryvale, and it will have Maryvale's name on it.”
Contributing to this article was staff writer Roberto Sanchez.
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