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Landmark day • Saturday, February 26, 2011

February 26, 2011: First Pitch at Salt River Fields

Five Stearman biplanes fly over, a choir from the community's schools sings, and two big-league teams open the first spring-training ballpark on tribal land — with a Scottsdale address that isn't in Scottsdale.

Illustrated plaque for February 26, 2011 in Scottsdale history FEBRUARY 26 2011 THE NEW WEST

What happened

Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, the $100 million, 140-acre spring-training home of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies, opened on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community's land east of Loop 101 at Indian Bend Road. Ground had been broken on November 17, 2009; the complex formally opened on February 11, 2011; and the first game, on February 26, drew a sellout of 12,514 — the Rockies winning 8–7 in ten innings. Community President Diane Enos and Vice President Martin Harvier threw out the first pitches, a choir from the community's schools sang, and five World War II Stearman biplanes flew over.

Why it matters

Salt River Fields was the first Major League facility on Native land and the largest single piece of the community's Talking Stick entertainment district — Casino Arizona, Talking Stick Resort (2010), the Pavilions, OdySea (2016), Great Wolf Lodge (2019) — which grew up on the 1990 Loop 101 corners along Scottsdale's border. It made the community, not the city, the biggest spring-training host in the Cactus League, and it is the clearest example of the 'Scottsdale' economy that lies outside Scottsdale's limits and tax base.

The corners the freeway made

When the state paid the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community $247 million in 1990 for the right-of-way of Loop 101, the community kept control of every interchange corner on its land. The Pavilions had opened on the first of them in 1989; Casino Arizona followed in 1998, a second casino at Indian Bend in 1999, and Talking Stick Resort on April 15, 2010. The community wanted an anchor that was not a casino, and the Cactus League — which had been losing teams to Florida in the 1990s and building new parks to win them back — wanted a two-team complex. On November 17, 2009 the community broke ground on 140 acres east of the freeway at Indian Bend Road for the Diamondbacks and Rockies, both moving from Tucson.

February 26, 2011

The complex — $100 million, designed by HKS, with an 11,000-seat main stadium, 4,000 lawn seats and twelve practice fields under the McDowells — opened formally on February 11, 2011. The first game came on Saturday, February 26: a sellout of 12,514, first pitches from community President Diane Enos and Vice President Martin Harvier, a choir from the community’s schools, and five 1940s Stearman biplanes — the type that had trained pilots at Thunderbird Field II across the city — flying over in formation. The Rockies beat the Diamondbacks 8–7 in ten innings. It was the first Major League spring-training facility ever built on Native American land.

Scottsdale, not Scottsdale

Salt River Fields has a Scottsdale mailing address and lies entirely outside the city, on sovereign land that Scottsdale’s sales tax does not reach — as does everything else in the Talking Stick district that grew around it: OdySea Aquarium in 2016, Great Wolf Lodge in 2019, the Pavilions. It made the community the Cactus League’s biggest single host, with two teams to the city’s one at the 1992 stadium downtown, and it is the best answer to the question of why the eastern boundary drawn on June 14, 1879 still matters. The community guide explains the relationship; the spring training guide explains how to get a seat; the 2010s chapter covers the decade.