Japanese teams key to future

This time, Feder watched the film more for research purposes than for entertainment.

Feder is executive director of the Pima County Sports and Tourism Authority, which hopes to bring in as many as four Japanese teams to Tucson each year for spring training.

The teams would serve to replace major-league teams. The Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies leave for a new complex near Scottsdale next year, and the Chicago White Sox departed in 2009 for a new stadium they share with the Los Angeles Dodgers in Glendale.

The PCSTA invited four Japanese teams - the Rakuten Golden Eagles, Nippon Ham Fighters, Orix Buffaloes and Chiba Lotte Marines - to spring training in Tucson. As of early this month, Rakuten was planning a visit that would potentially finalize a deal.

The teams would train at Kino Sports Complex and face, pending Major League Baseball's approval, big-league teams that would travel from the Phoenix area. The Japanese teams would sign one-year or multiyear deals, with different squads possibly taking turns in Tucson. They would play, hopefully, a 30-game schedule, said Jack Donovan, who heads Baseball's International Group, a liaison between the PCSTA and Japanese teams.

"All teams will benefit," Donovan said. "It's where Major League Baseball wants to go. We're aiding them in their desire to go global."

Feder, former general manager of the Tucson Toros and Tucson Sidewinders, admitted the average baseball fan will probably have to get used to the different brand of baseball. But he said he hopes the business community will reap the same benefits that the presence of major-league teams have provided.

"Would we rather keep the Diamondbacks? Of course we would, but we have to move on," Feder said. "They've moved on, and we have to move on. We'll be able to replace a lot of those dollars, and that's where the community benefits.

"Is it as sexy as two major-league teams playing and WGN carrying the games? Probably not. It'll impact the general fan more, but we hope the business community won't be impacted."

In past springs, each major-league team generated $10 million in economic impact, and Feder hopes the Japanese teams can achieve the same.

"The importance is bringing out-of-town visitors and doing something economically for this community," Feder said. "… The most important thing we can do is make more dollars to replace the dollars we're losing in spring training.

"If we achieve that, maybe the crowds aren't as good, but the dollars are just as good. Then that's a win for this community, and maybe the business community."

For another major-league team to spend spring training here, the Tucson area likely will need a new facility, Feder said. The PCSTA was unsuccessful in its last attempt to acquire a team when the Sarasota County (Fla.) Commission reached an agreement with the Baltimore Orioles in July.

Besides the D-backs, Rockies and White Sox fleeing to new parks, the Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds moved from Florida to a new complex in Goodyear. Tucson Electric Park, home of the D-backs, opened in 1998, and Hi Corbett Field, home of the Rockies, opened in 1928.

In July, Gov. Jan Brewer signed a bill requiring the Pima County Board of Supervisors to call an election in which county residents could decide on raising taxes for construction and maintenance of spring training facilities, and for youth and amateur sports. The election could be as early as this year or as late as 2014.

However, during the current economic climate, the election will likely occur after 2010, Feder said.

"The only way we have a new facility is if the Japanese effort is working well at the Kino Sports Complex," Feder said. "The community, I don't think, would accept that you want to have a new facility and have an open ballpark at Tucson Electric Park.

"Under the current environment, I don't know if there are any major-league teams that would come here."