City to consider breaking lease with Diablos

The City of El Paso and Diablos Baseball may be officially parting ways in an amicable break-up.

The City and Diablos, which are owned by the Tiguas, are considering an agreement to mutually break their lease. The agreement would allow the Tiguas to go free without penalty and the City to reclaim Cohen Stadium for itself.

Tuscon’s Triple-A team are coming to El Paso next year, a move that will create competition for the Diablos and created tension between the City and Tiguas.

“With the advent of Triple-A baseball, the competition is going to be extremely difficult,” said City Manager Joyce Wilson.

So the City is sweetening the deal:
They’re forgiving all past due electric and rent bills that Wilson estimates are around $100,000. They will reimburse the Diablos a rent credit for $110,000 for the scoreboard. They are also giving them an additional $150,000 for other improvements the Diablos paid for. The City is also paying them $40,000 to advertise for the new Triple-A baseball stadium until the lease ends October 1st.

Wilson said that wouldn’t make up for the $750,000 in improvements to Cohen Stadium the Tiguas claim they invested. It’s a claim the City can’t confirm.

“We’ve never been able to substantiate that those actual dollars,” Wilson said. “So what the credits are that we provided are for those investments that we know they made that we could substantiate the values of those.”

The Tigua tribal office didn’t respond to calls from ABC-7 to see how they feel about the deal but the City is satisfied.

“The team and the ownership group have an opportunity to relocate the team potentially to another market which will be to their benefit and it give us an opportunity then to sort of close the book on one activity and open the door for a new one,” Wilson said.