If everything goes according to plan, the Brewers will move their spring headquarters next year into a sparkling new facility in a west Phoenix neighborhood known as Maryvale. The stadium and office facilities at the new complex will finally put them on par with their counterparts in the Cactus League. For starters, the Brewers didn't want to leave Chandler. A protracted political battle between the City of Chandler and Maricopa County over proposed maintenance costs ended with no funding for the necessary improvements at Compadre. The funding went in that direction.
Location tops the list.
Maryvale, which stretches from 39th to 83rd avenues between McDowell Road and Maryland Ave., is a rundown neighborhood that has had problems attracting and retaining business because of crime and gang activity. The area around the stadium site, which is near 51st Ave. and Indian School Road, is a desert version of some of Milwaukee's poorer neighborhoods. Though some homes and yards are tidy and well-kept, others are dilapidated and rundown. Broken windows and junked cars are commonplace, as is gang graffiti. Home values have plummeted in the area, in part because of a cancer scare in the 1980s.