Tuscon Electric Park

Vacant

8/10

10,000 plus for the last D-Back home game at TEP.

This park was an excellent venue for spring training games.

This place was jammed.

I went to my one and likely only game at then Tucson Electric Park in 2010, during Spring Training. The Arizona Diamondbacks played their last game as a full-time tenant here against the Milwaukee Brewers. I dragged my stepfather out here, as he wanted to take me to the Pima County Air Museum and I shoehorned him into going to the game as well. I had to agree to leave early, but a deal was struck.

We arrived early enough, but got stuck in a large line to park, had to buy tickets(military buy 1, get one free, yay!) and got inside in the 2nd inning. Stayed for 5 innings, then left at the end of 7, to beat the crowd.

I thought from a baseball standpoint, the park was well laid out, concessions were good and not very expensive, but we only had some light fare(Ice Cream Sandwiches and perhaps some Beer). It's a relatively straightforward layout with a wraparound concourse, a decent view of some nearby mountains and a 2nd level with some shaded seating.

This stadium is a somewhat cautionary tale. The spring tenants left for Phoenix when that trend continued. The Sidewinders suffered from low attendance, because of Tucson's 100+ degree summers. The AAA Padres were clearly a temporary resident and struggled to draw over 2,500 in their three seasons here. Now, it hosts 4th tier soccer(sometimes) and two or three Cactus league games a season. This was strictly a location issue, as the park itself is new and at the time of its being yanked, was still better than at least 2 of the stadiums in the Phoenix area.

 Overall, this is still a relatively nice park, with the location being the main reason that someone isn't training here. The capacity crowd was a strain on everything, but it was still an enjoyable place to catch a game. Hopefully someone will move back in here soon, but with the Arizona summer being what it is, Spring Training is the only thing that seemed to work.


Update 2018:  I still have not been back here, but since my last review, another tenant has come and gone. The Pecos League put the Tucson Saguaros here and while the team played well, baseball in the summer heat of Tucson just didn't sell to anyone and with sparse crowds, the expense of playing here just wasn't justified. They will move to a city park with a capacity of around 1,000 for this year. The team only played here Thursday-Saturday, with Sunday home games in nearby Bisbee, although this year, Sundays will be in Winslow, 4.5 hours away.  The park is known as Kino Veteran's Stadium again, after the sponsorship deal with Tucson Electric expired.

Pima County, who own the facility, made a push at the end of 2017 to have the Milwaukee Brewers relocate their Spring Training here from Maryvale, after a possible new park in Gilbert, on the east end of Phoenix, fell through. This doesn't appear to have gotten any traction, as the Brewers are reportedly now negotiating a long term lease to stay in Maryvale, which I'm glad to hear about.

I would give this place a point for facility, if only barely, so it remains an 8.

Linescore:
                      123    456    789   RHE
Milwaukee       000    000    100   1XX
Arizona           104    100     21x  9XX

Temp: N/A  Time:  N/A   Att: 10,009