Spring Training baseball is a big money maker for the city of Tucson, but the Chicago White Sox say they will move to the Phoenix area next spring, even though they have three years left on their contract here. The team says they are offering to set up a youth baseball academy in Tucson in their place – and they claim that it will actually produce more revenue for the area than they do.

“Everybody’s excited and our kids love to play, and any time you talk about playing more, and having more places to play here in town, we get excited,” says Tucson Baseball Academy President Brian Johnson. It’s that excitement that brought about 150 people to the Tucson Convention Center on Tuesday, October 7, to hear the White Sox tell them why a youth baseball academy would be a worthy replacement.

“A major league team brings about $10 million in during the six weeks of our spring training, and estimates based on the economic analysis they did is that this will bring about $49 million a year to Pima County,” says White Sox Vice President of Communications Brian Reifert.

But Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry has a question: “That’s the net result of the economic analysis, and the question is, how realistic is that?,” he says. Staff members from the University of Arizona Business School are analyzing those numbers.

Pima County Officials say the White Sox’ idea also poses another dilemma. “The White Sox have said that if we hold them to their contract, they’re going to leave anyway in 20112,” says Huckelberry. So the options are to replace them with youth baseball, or try to keep the team in Tucson until 2012.

“The question will be, what kind of players do they send to those games?,” says Huckelberry. Is it the “A” list or the “B” list? Reifert responds, “We don’t want to short change anybody, so that certainly wouldn’t be in the spirit of the partnership that we’ve had here.”

Right now, supporting youth baseball is the only idea the White Sox have on the table, but that’s OK with Johnson. “My position on it is, if they’re going to leave, let’s make sure we get something for our community.”

From here, the Pima County Sports and Tourism Authority will review the plan and eventually make a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors. The White Sox want a decision by the end of the year.