Ladies and Gentleman, Your 2025 Colorado Springs Isotopes! (Part 1 - Development)
How News of a Sale of NM's Minor League Team Didn't Sound Any Alarms For Anyone Locally, Except for Me
Author’s Note: I hope I am wrong, but I fear I am on the money… because I know how to follow the money!
I hate baseball, and I love it. After my Cubbies won in 2016, I announced my retirement from rooting for a team and watching it regularly.
Look at this steroid-taking writer. Just kidding I never took roids, but I lifted every day to combat depression and anxiety from the bank, and as you can see, I was really anxious and depressed!
I will watch the World Series, and that’s pretty much it. I couldn’t tell you who won the last 3 MVPs, nor can I tell you the affiliations of the AAA teams except for the 2 local ones to me.
But much like Bob-O was trying and failing to speak Spanish to Ritchie Valens in “La Bamba,” only to have his mom say, “No, But we speak business!”
I may not speak baseball-ese anymore, but as a former banker, avid sports fan, and a lifelong master of reading between the lines, I can speak the business of sports very fluently, unlike the chick in the Babbel commercial trying to order some food or get a taxi.
So here’s a hot take around a long-ass column that will be (at least 2 parts), and I will write it in bold font for all of y’all to see.
THE ALBUQUERQUE ISOTOPES WILL MOVE TO ANOTHER CITY WITHIN THE NEXT 3-5 YEARS, WITH MY MOST LIKELY DESTINATION PREDICTION BEING COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO, WHICH IS A SHORT DRIVE AWAY FROM THEIR PARENT CLUB THE COLORADO ROCKIES!
I can hear people in Albuquerque Dukes attire flop to the ground right now. I say this with no animus towards ABQ.
I love the notion of ABQ, although I would never live there. Despite being called a pedophile and “The Notorious Bitch” by Lobo fans when trying to defend NMSU’s QB Diego Pavia from the number 2 storm of his number 1 incident, I will support the state of New Mexico in any way, because that is who I am deep down.
I have ABQ Journal Columnist Rick Wright to thank for amping up Lobo fans for that.
But I am not an idiot. This team will move in a couple of years.
Some of my fondest memories of The Albuquerque Dukes were the times my dad would take me and my little brother on Sunday afternoons. I got to see Piazza, Karros, Mondesi, Pedro and Ramon Martinez, and even Darryl Strawberry.
I got my dad to take me to funny nose and glasses night once, and I remember that night more because between innings, some woman flashed the camera roving the stands, and my 13 year-old self got to see some 1990s boobies. I just remember my dad sounding like Jerry “The King” Lawler when that happened.
“Puppies, JR, Puppies”
When the Dukes moved to Portland in 2000, and traded a city with a crack-cocaine habit at the time (I had classmates who sold drugs in ABQ, so don’t get offended by that statement. Love ya, Larry! Represent Westgate! Yes, this is a real person.) for a city with a heroin habit (watch any documentary) you had to wonder why?
Because ABQ Sports Stadium SUCKED! While I loved going to the games, It felt like a prison, with so much cement and aluminum benches, you’d expect to find a shiv every five feet.
It was not comfy, and certainly not a place you could make money. The Lozinak family who owned the team lived thousands of miles away and had no interest in owning an ABQ team, so they sold it to interests in the Portland area, and it became a Padres affiliate from a Dodgers one upon the move as they were rechristened the Portland Beavers.
I remember being 17 and understanding how devastating it was for some people including myself. They loved that team.
Our goddamn sportscaster on Channel 7 in ABQ was Terry McDermott who was an ABQ Dukes Legend, and is responsible for me to this day saying when there is no reported score in a HS Football game on a Friday Night highlight show, “We didn’t get the score because…..NNNNNNNNNOBODY CALLED!”
I have my wife saying that shit and she was too young to remember that in real-time. That’s how deep my Dukes roots go.
(My El Paso readers, My analogy is that he’s Cody Decker with a perm.)
But you know who helped save minor league baseball in ABQ?
James Fuckin’ Baca.
No…not me, I was still in high school letting girls cheat off my papers so I can get some hugs.
Mayor of ABQ Jim Baca.
My dad used to steal his campaign signs, not because he was rooting for his opponents, but he stole them because of me and his late brother, my Uncle James. It was a free memory hammered into the ground.
Jim Baca made it his mission to bring back minor league baseball in ABQ. He spent a considerable amount of time trying to lure other teams in the PCL with a new stadium that would be built by the city for exclusive purposes of using it for baseball.
Baca wanted a new ballpark in a revitalized downtown, which ironically is what EVERYONE is doing these days. (more on that in part 2)
He didn’t get that wish, instead he had an option to either renovate ABQ Sports Stadium or tear it down and build a new one on top of it. The plan ended up being to renovate Sports Stadium, but it was so fucked up, that almost everything was replaced in the stadium, which we now know as Isotopes Park or by some bank’s name now (I don’t plug banks unless they pay me)
He wanted to retain the cool drive-up area that ABQ Sports Stadium had, but that was shitcanned, using 9/11 as an excuse, because we all know Al-Qaeda next soft target was going to be a ABQ vs Sky Sox game. Sigh.
But by mid-2001, he found a mark… I mean a team looking to move to the Duke City. The Calgary Cannons agreed to move into the new stadium after the 2002 season, which means April 2003 was the date of the first game played for this new unnamed ABQ team.
What to name the team? Well, everyone wanted Dukes at first…but then a certain Simpsons episode came out where their minor league team, the Isotopes were moving to Albuquerque, which forces Homer into a hunger strike that saves the team on the show. Isotopes refers to something nuclear and we have the national labs in ABQ, so it made perfect sense.
Plus the new owners were not stupid, they knew they could sell a lot of merch with the name, and they very much did. The Albuquerque Isotopes were created. Yay! Jim Baca was kind of like Jesus but not in a sacrilegious way. Watch the video above to get the joke.
Anyhoo, I WAS THERE at the first game for the Topes against OKC. It was so packed, but when me and my friend James C walked in, we definitely walked into heaven in my opinion. It was such a beautiful park, and the food options were amazing for the time. People weren’t foodies…yet, but they had some good eats there. I loved it and went as often as I can get to ABQ. BTW The hill in centerfield was such a cool quirk!
I would go to 50 cent hot dog night every year (My record was 13) and I would catch maybe 8-10 games every year the first 6 years, until I moved to Las Cruces in 2008. I never fall out of love with the Topes, I just was somewhere else now.
With affiliations going from the Marlins to Dodgers and now a 10-year agreement with the Rockies, the Isotopes have seen a lot of evolution in the now 21 years they have been a team. HOLY COW, IT’S BEEN 21 YEARS?!?!?!
I was 19 years old and drooling and dreaming about girls who were college freshmen at the time, and now all these years later at 40 I…..Umm… ok bad example. (I am just kidding.)
What I mean is I am now old, and when they started, I still lived at home with mommy. It’s a lifetime ago, and in some senses 10 lifetimes ago.
The Topes still draw in ABQ. At the stadium now named after a bank, the led the PCL in attendance. Amazing staying power. Our local team here in Cruces, the El Paso Chihuahuas have a stadium that maxes out at near what the Topes are averaging.. About 7,000 people per game in ABQ. (PS I have been to 2 EP Chihuahuas games and no one is going anymore. OMG)
I see my friends, some of whom I know don’t give a shit about baseball going to the games. I see my cousins going to the games, and I have never seen them care about baseball. Couple that with the soccer team, NM United, and you got a dedicated base of fans who do turn out for minor league sports in ABQ, and I think it is so cool. I can’t say the same about UNM Football fans though lol.
But Butts in seats are not the only important thing these days. There’s other things that go into a stadium district now.
But 21 years in, and a lifetime ago in the sports business industry where a dirty phrase has made its way into our lexicon as much as Chinga tu Madre has in New Mexico… that phrase is Public-Private Partnership.
The original PPP.
Take away a letter from PPP and I can tell you why I think the new owners of the Isotopes, Diamond Baseball Holdings will eventually move this team and effectively PP on the city of Albuquerque and the shitty deal they are stuck in for a few more years for reasons that are easy for some to understand, and for reasons that are hard for some people to understand.
Public-Private Partnership is basically “Give us something of value for free or cheap, and we will stay. If you don’t give us what we want, we will find a place who will.”
Ask residents of the State of Nevada how they feel about $700 million going to Allegiant Stadium with maybe another billion going there to woo the A’s from Oakland.
We will get to Diamond Baseball Holdings later in part 2, and how even though they are a faceless corporation who couldn’t give a fuck about Albuquerque, are actually in the right if they choose to move which I will explain here below.
Let me just say here, ABQ Isotopes are in year 22 of a 25 year lease at the moment and this is important to what is going on. I believe the rent is $700,000-$800,000, although reports of $2 million have been around for years, as the ownership group has to pay a 12.5% commission on anything sold in the stadium. It’s a royalty deal like Mr. Wonderful on Shark Tank likes!
But let me circle back to Jim Baca’s desire to have a stadium downtown. Most major league, and yes, even some minor league cities are incorporating sports stadiums into a revitalized downtown. This includes El Paso, where you can celebrate the city all you want, and I do all the time, but that downtown was shitty in 2008 when I moved down here.
As a kid, I used to be scared of it as my parents and I went to pick up Primo, the resident cook at the Owl Bar in San Antonio, NM from the bus stop.
RIP Primo.
Now Downtown EP is nicer. Still not my cup of tea, but there’s things around it that weren’t there before, and that’s cool.
New KVIA Anchor, Paul Cicala, who I respect more than most in his business ran a story about how downtown changed recently and interviewed the guy who owns the Chihuahuas to give perspective on it. It was enlightening, and all the more reason I am writing this now.
Link Here: https://kvia.com/news/el-paso/2023/10/11/people-places-paul-revitalization-of-downtown-el-paso/
Avenida Cesar Chavez Blvd in Albuquerque, formerly Stadium Blvd (What a unique name!) SUCKS there is no other way to put it. It is HORRIBLY designed. The Pit and Isotopes Park are beacons for what makes ABQ great, but the ghetto-ass Motel 6 off the exit, where I know for a fact drug deals were common, as was prostitution, plus there was a murder there not too long ago.
My cousin used to stay the night there often, and I swear to God, I used to fear the call he was going to get killed, because he was a 6’5” wannabe gangsta in baggy clothes. He would go there to sleep when clubbing.
There are big-ass empty lots where people park and where a drive-by shooting allegedly was instigated by someone getting cut-off a couple months ago, killing an 11-year old.
This prompted Governor MLG’s “Gun Ban” which was met with criticism.
Lobo Village is nearby, as is the UNM Admissions Office, and CNM is not too far away. I still call CNM “TVI” because two of the girls I used to date went there.
There’s things, but not STUFF there, if you get my drift.
If you want to build something even resembling the downtown surrounding the EP Stadium, you will also need to figure out parking, as there were be less spots to park for football and basketball, and the super-dee-duper congestion that will occur on that exit off of Cesar Chavez Blvd on the interstate, plus coming in from the west side on city streets. It will suck. It’s just not built right.
BANKERS ARE TAUGHT TO READ BETWEEN THE LINES AND LOOK FOR CLUES
I had to pay $1 to get through the paywall of the ABQ Journal, and I regret not using it for a McMuffin already, but I wanted to read in detail what people were talking about on X.
UNM officials are discussing a mixed-use restaurant, retail, and 100k sq ft hotel development along the Cesar Chavez area around the Science and Technology Park area.
Apparently an out-of-state commercial retail firm has bought a parcel of land and has started plans to open a… RAISING CANE’S nearby. OMFG!!!!! (I am being sarcastic)
The popular chicken joint, while it is popular and tasty is supposed to be the canary in the coalmine that alerts us that hey, all this development is happening.
This is literally a quote from Matthew Narvaiz’ article:
The land is expected to be the site of a Raising Cane’s, a fast-food restaurant that specializes in chicken tenders. Two Raising Cane’s have opened in Albuquerque this year and have proved popular among locals, with long lines still common months after their openings.
UNM Athletic Director, Eddie “Let’s charge Tuba Players to Perform at our Stadium” Nunez was quoted as saying, “To see (Raising Cane’s) coming into the area, that’s exciting,” Nuñez said.
“This is one of those kinds of businesses that are going to attract others.”
Dude, I’m 300lbs. Raising Cane’s is great but not life-changing. This weird obsession by Nunez with Raising Cane’s must come from the fact that Todd Graves the founder of Cane’s is an LSU Alum and has big ties to the university and probably has met Nunez a few times.
Nunez hyping him up is like someone from NM hyping up Hatch Green Chile. It’s ok, but it is not the spur of a revolution. It’s one restaurant being built in a busy location.
Eddie Nunez is on the board of Lobo Development Co. who is spearheading all this desire for growth and an entertainment district in the area. He was at LSU where as mentioned in the article, colleges and universities are building these entertainment districts to generate revenue for the universities. While I don’t like the guy, I trust his experience in those SEC cities tells me he is an expert. This is what colleges are doing everywhere, and I know it is a good thing!
While talking to Nunez, Narvaiz’ article says this:
“He said improving the fan experience on gameday by offering nearby entertainment options could boost ticket sales and revenue for UNM sports teams.”
I will repeat that quote one more time later before this is over.
I like how the article mentions Raising Cane’s “specializes in chicken tenders” LOL. It’s literally the only thing they have over there. HA.
More from the article:
Estimates for the TIDD predict it will create more than 4,000 jobs with $4.2 billion in total salaries, and more than $200 million in public infrastructure creation and improvement, which includes roads, sidewalks, utilities, plazas, parks, trails and landscaping. The TIDD is also expected to provide a $1.1 billion net economic benefit to the state.
TIDDs are Tax Increment Development Districts, which is something I never heard about until El Paso tried to do one a few years ago by putting a Great Wolf Lodge and their pee-filled kids pools/hotels in El Paso, until Great Wolf backed out.
Basically it’s building infrastructure to support a bigger project, which in this case is the development for this TIDD for UNM.
Now, I may sound like I am hating on this, but NMSU is trying to create Aggie Uptown here in Cruces, so we are on the path to something similar.
But I am 10000000% for this project for that area in Albuquerque. I think it would be so cool, and YES, it will benefit the area.
The renderings look COOL. I am a big fan of all this development. ABQ is not going to be the ABQ I grew up with. Even the PIT got a glow-up in the last decade. I’m for evolving and making things better, and it would do ABQ good.
Much better than the jack and shit they have now
When you read all the shit they want to do, while it sounds good, sounds like they are trying wayyyyyyyyy too hard to convince people this is a good thing. They are mentioning a Target might be built in the area, the aformentioned hotel, improvements to the science and technology park to incentivize start-ups to come to the area.
Bernalillo County Economic Development Director Marcos Gonzales said can incentivize new startups and tech-oriented companies to move into the area in hopes of partnering with UNM, Sandia National Laboratories, Kirtland Air Force Base and the Air Force Research Lab.
It’s making a shit-ton of assumptions and best case scenarios in my opinion.
Plus there’s mention of possible housing in that area with this quote:
South of the arenas on University stretching toward Gibson is what officials are calling Gibson Town Center, 439,000 square feet of which is also slated for shopping and restaurants. In that area, too, is room for potential housing development. Officials said creating more housing is a priority to address Albuquerque’s ongoing housing shortage.
This isn’t to combat homelessness, this is to make expensive housing for people with big incomes. Again, no problem with people wanting to make money, this just sounds like you are trying to over-convince me.
You can’t be everything to everybody.
I am sure you are going to tell me that you can effectively harness bird shit into a clean fuel that will make UNM a zero emissions facility by 2033.
I am waiting to hear how the metal used to build these buildings will be recovered catalytic converters that were stolen that are now repurposed into materials for these projects. Why do you have to lay it all out, when one shovel isn’t in the ground yet?
Now, I am NOT hating on UNM for wanting to thrive. DO IT! I want you to be successful. Even Nunez, who I can do without, I am happy he is touting this because he knows UNM can be so much more. I love how Mill Ave in Tempe blends into ASU and their stadiums.
It is so nice! I want to see something like that here.
So I am here to say, UNM, Nunez, Albuquerque… none of them are in my sights as “enemies” here. They are trying to do something that shitty area needed a long time ago. Jobs, growth, enticing new business. This is what I am all about.
Now that I am done talking about UNM’s proposed development, let me now get back to what I started to talk about, because this was not supposed to be about UNM, but I had to give facts to support my point.
The Albuquerque Isotopes have been sold to a company called Diamond Baseball Holdings which now owns 23 teams across Minor League Baseball and is from what I can gather a for-profit company looking to make money. (I’m being facetious) They cannot make money here.
I believe they will move from Albuquerque in the next 2-3 years ad they will have a good reason to.
But let me quote one thing and then requote something above:
This is what the Journal writer said:
Since UNM owns the majority of the land, its private development arm and master developer of the TIDD, Lobo Development Corp., can either sell or lease that land to other developers who are looking to bring new projects to the area.
UNM owns the majority of the land and can either sell or lease that land to other developers to bring new projects. MEANING? UNM is looking to make $, which is not a bad thing.
Do you really think the owner of the ‘Topes is going to want to have to pay fair market price to UNM for land to develop other businesses in the area when they already have to give a lot of money to the city every year? No fucking way. That’s not how 2023 Pro Sports operates…unless you are looking to lose money. This is what I said above.
ABQ Isotopes are in year 22 of a 25 year lease at the moment and this is important to what is going on. I believe the rent is $700,000-$800,000 yearly, although reports of $2 million have been around for years, as the ownership group has to pay a 12.5% commission on anything sold in the stadium.
Now back to what the reporter said Nunez said:
He said improving the fan experience on gameday by offering nearby entertainment options could boost ticket sales and revenue for UNM sports teams.
I mean, ok? Do you really want to go to fucking Target after sitting at a football game for 4 hours? Will it even be open after the game?
Why hype up a Raising Cane’s to eat at after the game, instead of finding a way to incorporate Cane’s in the stadium or better eats instead?
Entertainment? A…hotel is entertainment?
Startup companies? They aren’t entertainment.
Housing? That’s not entertainment, unless you are friends with swingers and a ticket stub gets you admission to a key party. (look it up prudes)
What do you think they mean by “entertainment?” Aside from a mention of a “themed” sports bar, what other thing is “entertaining”? Shopping isn’t entertainment, neither is any of that which I mentioned.
They can’t mean the Isotopes, because the bleed-in from the Isotopes season to UNM Football is 1-2 weeks tops, so maybe 1 UNM game. How about Basketball? November to March… no Isotopes then. NM United? Done by November as well..
Notice how Isotopes ticket sales or NM United Ticket sales are not mentioned. This will not benefit them!
The sports bar idea can be fun, and it has been rumored a million times, with the name of UNM/Chicago Bears Legend and Hair Growth Specialist Brian Urlacher being tied to it. I think that was all bullshit, as Urlacher has as much ties to UNM these days as he does reality with his political beliefs.
I think they think that the Isotopes are the entertainment, which they are not. They are being treated as tenants, and not as partners, which owners, both in the minors and major leagues like to be treated like.
In part 2, I will discuss the Isotopes substantial rent payment every year, coupled with the fact the shitty location where the stadium is leaves them no options for growth, and the fact that UNM wants to sell/lease parcels of land for development, that the owners of the Isotopes will not get any favorable advantages in the form of tax breaks, rebates, or sweetheart deals in helping develop this TIDD area.
Couple that with MLB swinging it’s hairy…baseball bat around at minor league cities lately, mandating improvements to a stadium to meet code, that the owners run the risk of getting forced out of Isotopes Park anyway, leaving them to look for a landing spot.
I never thought I would say this, but while I favor UNM Developing what I thought has always been a shitty area, it means the end for this iteration of minor league baseball in Albuquerque, and I would stake my reputation on it.
I will miss them, and yes, Albuquerque will miss them too. While I cannot believe I am defending UNM for wanting to build this little district, I also cannot believe that I am defending the new owners of this team in that there is ZERO chance for them to make meaningful money in this market with the stadium where it is, with the land being owned by who it is, and with the team paying an insane amount of rent to the city.
As is, it’s a no-win situation for the Topes, and the reason they will leave is a Sophie’s Choice of “Lobos or Isotopes” with the LOBOS winning all day every day.
But I digress, this is supposed to be about the Isotopes, and I think with my UNM development research I just gave you, it will set up part 2 nice and neat why I think your Albuquerque Isotopes will be the Colorado Springs Isotopes in a couple of years.
Enjoy your Texas Toast and your Target, Albuquerque.
It was the reason you will no longer have a baseball team.
Thanks for reading. Part 2 to come in a day or two.
-James