Manfred hopes voter rejection of Coyotes area won’t hurt Diamondbacks stadium deal

NEW YORK (AP) — Following voter rejection of a new arena for the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred hopes the Arizona Diamondbacks can reach a stadium deal for when their lease for Chase Field in Phoenix expires after the 2027 season.

The baseball team, run by managing general partner Ken Kendrick, has not decided whether it prefers a renovation of Chase Field, which opened as Bank One Ballpark in 1998, or a new ballpark.

Three City of Tempe propositions to help the Coyotes build a new arena were on a May 16 ballot and all three lost with 56-57% voting no.

“Whenever you get near the end of a lease, you get yourself into a situation where what I regard to be public assets — right, a stadium is a public asset — there’s going to need to be updating,” Manfred said Thursday following an owners meeting.

“I think that Ken Kendrick has indicated a willingness to fulfill his side of sort of the public/private partnership to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars,” Manfred said. “I’m hopeful that whatever went on with the Coyotes is not an indication of a lack of public support to fulfill the public part of that partnership to keep the Arizona facility a first-class major league facility.”

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