City council members in Mesa, Arizona voted unanimously to approve a 30-year contract with the Cubs that will include a new $99 million spring training complex.
Last year voters in Mesa approved the deal by a 2-to-1 margin, but Garin Groff of the East Valley Tribune reports that protesters have said the public wasn’t fully aware of the details at the time of the voting.
There’s also some controversy about bidding for the project and the below-market sale of nearby land to the Cubs.
According to Groff the current plan is to begin construction in the spring and complete the job by 2014, with the project involving 96 acres of land that is currently a golf course. Mesa has been the Cubs’ spring training home since 1979.