In a story about the financial situation of the San Francisco Giants with the pandemic in The Athletic on Monday, Andy Baggarly reported that the Giants new Spring Training facility at Papago Park in Phoenix will have its opening delayed from 2021 until 2022.

The reason for the delay is that the team decided to manage the level of debt they took on while covering their losses in 2020 by shifting much of the construction cost of the complex into 2021.

The Giants are fully financing the rebuilding of the 37-acre complex, part of major investments in their Arizona Spring Training home.  They contributed more than $15 million as part of a multi-phase renovation of Scottsdale Stadium that is ongoing.  This is in addition to the largest renovations at Oracle Park since its 2000 opening which included removing seats and changing the outfield fences to move the bullpens.  The team is also in the process of a major Mission Rock development in the stadium’s former parking lots.

The Giants move from their current Minor League training facility at the Indian School Complex to Papago Park has been in the works since 2018.  It was the former minor league facility of the Oakland Athletics up until 2014, when the A’s moved their spring operations to Mesa, headquartered at Hohokam Stadium, and moving their minor leaguers to the Lew Wolff Training Complex at Fitch Park.  The Giants are rebuilding the facility from the ground up, creating new weight rooms, training facilities, and more to support the latest technology for player development.

The Giants have been at their current facility at Indian School Park in Scottsdale since 1982.  The facility was refurbished in 2007 to bring it up to newer standards, but it remained a smaller and more cramped facility than what most teams in Arizona had, as many newer spring facilities that had been built alongside the facilities for their big league teams.