Goodyear council just approved deal

[JaxRed]

They just got 4th vote they needed. Still going on.

[JaxRed]

Final vote was unanimous

[Reds Freak]

Unfortunate, if you ask me...

[Reds Fanatic]

Sounds like the Reds are probably headed to Arizona starting in 2010.

Goodyear City Council approved the Memorandum of Understanding, the big step in the bringing the Reds to Goodyear.

The vote was 6-0. Joanne Osborne, the council woman who said she was opposed a few weeks ago, was swayed in the last couple of weeks.

The city has stepped forward to fund the $33 million project.

John Allen was at the meeting he passed out Reds hats to the council members after the vote.

[Johnny Footstool]

Extremely good news for me. I'll get to see the Reds play in my In-Laws' back yard.

[WMR]

John Allen's reign of terror is now officially permanently a thing of the past.

[KittyDuran]

Well, it looks like next year's ST will be the last for me. I feel more sorry for the fans who have followed the Reds in FL for decades. When I stayed at the Holiday Inn this year - a couple two doors down - were making their IIRC 10th trip and where going to the games with a couple making their 25th trip. Sad...

But on the bright side - I'll be saving over $2,000 in 2010!!!

[RedlegJake]

I'm loving it. Taking a $149 RT dollar special on America West to Phoenix then renting a compact for 99 bucks and heading to Tucson. The Reds won't miss out on fans to watch - Arizona has thousands of Ohio ex-patriates. I lived in Yuma and Phoenix for four years and love the state so this is right up my alley. I do feel for the fans that drive to Florida but with the price of gas nowadays that may be more and more a burden on alot of fans, and airfares aren't much more expensive than driving. The fans I really feel bad for are the ones who have actually moved to Florida for retirement with Reds ST one of their criteria in choosing Florida. But now I know where my sunny retirement years are going to be!

[SirFelixCat]

Extremely good news for me. I'll get to see the Reds play in my In-Laws' back yard.

I'm thrilled as well, living in Vegas, this is a quick jaunt there and I can spend most of March living it up @ ST!!!!!

[BRM]

Good news for me too. It's just a day's drive from where I live.

[Unassisted]

Both sites are nearly equidistant from me, so I'm ambivalent about the location.

What I am excited about is the financial aspect of the deal. The Reds are getting a much nicer facility to prepare the major and minor league teams for their seasons and the organization will save millions on the rights to use it. That leaves the team with more money to spend on players and things in Cincinnati that will improve the fan experience. We need to remember this day in two years time when we're happy that the team's pockets seem so much deeper, because this deal will have contributed to that effect.

[Yachtzee]

Both sites are nearly equidistant from me, so I'm ambivalent about the location.

What I am excited about is the financial aspect of the deal. The Reds are getting a much nicer facility to prepare the major and minor league teams for their seasons and the organization will save millions on the rights to use it. That leaves the team with more money to spend on players and things in Cincinnati that will improve the fan experience. We need to remember this day in two years time when we're happy that the team's pockets seem so much deeper, because this deal will have contributed to that effect.

Assuming Goodyear doesn't come back and start demanding to rework the deal in 5-10 years if expected growth doesn't materialize. There was a link posted in another thread in which the article gave me the impression that Goodyear's ability to pay for this may be based on an assumed growth rate that would transform Goodyear from the size of Middletown to the size of Cincinnati in about 20 years. That's a huge assumption even with today's growth rate in AZ. If I were the Reds, I would make sure that Goodyear can pay for what they're promising with current revenues rather than revenues expected from that projected future growth. Either that, or they better make sure they have a good escape clause.

[Sea Ray]

I'm disappointed but I'm not going to be retiring in 20 years anyway. There's just not much to do in Goodyear, AR. In Sarasota you've got beaches, boat rides, the Ringling Museum and a lot of nice restaurants with fresh fish. I don't want to hear any complaining from the Reds about lack of attendance in Goodyear.

[BRM]

I don't want to hear any complaining from the Reds about lack of attendance in Goodyear.

It's only 20 miles to Phoenix. I can't imagine that I'll be bored when I head down there in 2010.

[Benihana]

This sucks. :thumbdown