Not Official Until Cubs Say So, but…

The Cubs have yet to give “official” word but the battle for the Cubs spring training future appears to be over as the team is poised to sign an agreement with the City of Mesa. As you’ve probably heard Mesa has provided the Cubs with a 14 page Memorandum of Understanding on a new training complex to be ready for spring of 2013. The Mesa city council plans to approve the proposal on Monday night with the Cubs expected to sign shortly thereafter. The project still needs to jump a few funding hurdles, none of which appear insurmountable.

The Chicago Tribunes Dave van Dyck said in an article yesterday, “the Cubs will retain their spring home in Arizona, under a tentative agreement reached for a state-of-the-art $84-million facility in East Mesa”…However, van Dyck doesn’t tell how he knows of this “tentative agreement” or that he has an inside source for this knowledge.

Lending more credence to the “tentative agreement”; Dave Moulton columnist/sports radio host and one of those who helped promote the potential move to Naples posted this at 9:55 last night about not getting the Cubs: “it feels like we dated a married woman who had officially separated from her husband. We began to fall for each other and then suddenly when it came time to file the divorce papers, she went running back to her husband for the sake of the kids”.

Even after the Cubs sign the agreement as expected with Mesa next week, much work will still need to be done to make this new spring training complex a reality. However the people of Mesa and Arizona have experience in these areas and a great relationship with the Cubs that goes back to 1952. Sure the Cubs new owners are interested in making money but if all goes as planned by 2013 the Ricketts and Mesa will be giving the organization and Cubs fans the best spring training experience in all of baseball. This can only help in the Cubs quest for a World Series Championship.