D-backs’ Hall: ‘Utah Pika’ comment from Arizona leader was ‘coming from the heart’

When an Arizona business leader spoke of the dreaded possibility that the Diamondbacks could follow the Coyotes out of the Arizona pro sports market for Utah — and take an obscure mascot as a name — he was expressing his emotional worry more than reality.

Arizona Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Danny Seiden doesn’t want the D-backs becoming the “Utah Pika,” a reference to a North American rodent.

As Seiden said Wednesday, leading into his more viral comment, local leaders — and the Diamondbacks themselves — believe a bill proposal that would help fund renovations to Chase Field in downtown Phoenix is close to passing in the Senate.

“I do believe we’re on their 5-yard line,” D-backs president and CEO Derrick Hall reaffirmed Thursday when he visited Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta. “So, you know, I’m still very hopeful. I think things are going well. There are some people that have tried to make it more complicated, have tried to get in between the flow and the momentum we’ve had, but that’s OK.

“There’s too many people that want to make this happen and they understand the importance of it. And when someone like Danny Seiden goes public with such a statement, I think obviously it’s just coming from the heart. It’s a fresh wound when we lost our hockey team. No one wants to lose another team. There has not been a threat of that.”

Seiden made headlines Tuesday when he pointed out that legislation in Utah and Oregon to fund MLB teams in those locations has passed.

He, too, said he thought people pushing back against the tax recapture plan, including Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, were coming around to approving it as the D-backs look for a resolution as their lease to the Maricopa County-owned ballpark ends in 2027.

But Seiden made sure to paint the picture of a worst-case scenario:

“If we’re not careful, we’re going to see that the Arizona Diamondbacks become the Utah Pika or whatever awful animal they change it to,” Seiden said Wednesday when he joined KTAR News 92.3’s The Mike Broomhead Show. “They took our Coyotes and turned them into the Mastodon Elephants (Utah Mammoth) … I don’t even want to say it. It hurts my heart. Some Utah nonsense. I’m very pro-Arizona here.”

A day later, Hall laughed off Seiden’s emotional quote as frustration about losing the NHL squad more than a temperature check of where the D-backs feel their proposed HB2704 bill stands at present.

“I think he’s just merely pointing to how many markets do want baseball because it’s a point of pride to have your community and the number of jobs you create and what it does for the economy and economic impact,” Hall said. “So that’s really where he was going.

“But obviously, our focus is squarely on getting this deal done, staying right where we are downtown and start to beautify and renovate that stadium that needs it so desperately.”

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