SURPRISE, Ariz. — One morning a few months ago, a longtime baseball man, dressed in a Royals uniform, stepped out from the gleaming sun and into a brand-spanking-new building.
“Damn,” he said, scanning the sleek architecture from right to left. “Damn.”
Eddie Rodriguez, the Royals’ infield coordinator, was snaking his way through the facility for the first time. In front of him was a long shuffleboard table, embossed with Royals logos. To his right was a wall with a collage of sorts, filled with small pictures of Royals legends such as George Brett, Mike Sweeney and Salvador Perez. Behind him were the makings of a kitchen: sinks and cabinets, all blending in beautifully.
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The baseball man was standing in what the Royals call, “The Fountains.” The four-story building, which is less than a half-mile from the entrance to the club’s baseball complex, has begun to house Royals players and staff both during the season and throughout the offseason. Major League Baseball’s ongoing lockout prohibits players on the 40-man roster from partaking in any activity at any club facility, but the Royals are preparing to hold two camps of non-40-man players. Many will be staying at The Fountains. There are 47 units capable of sleeping 176 people; 42 units are specified for players, and four players can live in a unit. Each has a washer, dryer, full kitchen and dishwasher. The facility also has a barbershop, a classroom, surround-sound capability and more. It opened on Nov. 19.
“To describe it, I would probably use the term, ‘Luxury condo,’” said Royals senior vice president/assistant general manager Scott Sharp, who played an integral role in the project. “A lot has been made of minor-league living situations recently. And this wasn’t in light of that. We just felt like, look, if we can get players out of hotels, we’re going to put them in a better environment.”
The quality of this new environment explains why Rodriguez, 62, needed just one oft-repeated word to handle his review. He preferred, simply, “Damn.”
He said the word when he stepped into one room and realized the players would have balconies overlooking the baseball facility to allow for fresh Arizona air. He said it when he entered the coaches lounge that features a dartboard, among many other amenities. He said it when he heard about the back patio with a grill area that will allow for players and staffers to relax after long days on the field.
“Damn!”
After about an hour full of four-letter fun, Rodriguez walked toward the exit. Turned around. Shook his head in disbelief that, back when he was a minor-league player nearly 40 years ago, it would have been unthinkable. Then he left toward the field for a day of work.
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Longtime Royals director of Arizona operations Nick Leto, who had observed this baseball man’s first impression, nodded, said the reaction was common and looked around.
“The things that can be done here,” he then said, “are unquantifiable.”
It’s impossible for Nick Leto to talk about how this building came to be without talking about legendary scout Art Stewart, who died in November. Stewart joined the Royals during their inaugural 1969 season and was present for the impact of both the Royals academy and the Dominican Republic academy.
“Art just stands out so prominently,” said Leto, who, similar to Sharp, played a major role in the project. He was still standing in the lobby of the facility, looking up at the 10-foot-by-10-foot screen that would deliver messages and televise games.
Over the years, Stewart walked into the Royals’ offices with different relics from the past, many of which related to the once avant-garde Royals academy. That location was spearheaded by legendary Royals owner Ewing Kauffman and constructed for $1.5 million in the early 1970s. The academy, then located in Sarasota, Fla., housed young players, who took classes from knowledgeable coaches at the facility. The idea spurred careers for well-known baseball folks such as Ron Washington, Frank White and so many others.
One of the relics Stewart showed Royals staffers in the last decade was a flier the Royals used at the time to attract players to the academy. There was a copy, too, of a Sports Illustrated story, detailing the bygone academy’s dreams. Leto and other Royals spoke to Stewart about the idea and those pivotal days. Stewart, Leto recalled, explained that the Royals felt as if the idea was going to make them more competitive, specifically with player development.
And it did. Led by homegrown talent, the Royals won three division titles in the 1970s, their first American League pennant in 1980 and their first World Series title by 1985. That impact was not lost on the present Royals front office; if anything, the team longed to recreate it.
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Almost 15 years ago, that hope led to an idea: Why not construct a facility for year-round training?
“A place to live that’s in close proximity to our people and facility,” Sharp said recently, “so they can always be under our care.”
Conversations about the idea ultimately led to a presentation inside a Holiday Inn in Surprise, Ariz. In the late 2000s, Patrick Boyd, a former minor leaguer who had found his way into the housing business with his company, Pro Housing Management, outlined what it would take for the idea to work. They would have to acquire land; architects would have to design the facility; they would then have to sort through specific questions.
Hurdles throughout that process — from where to buy land to who would own that land to who would operate the building — stifled any progress.
“There were multiple times where it was super close,” Leto said. “Really close. Drawings and such. Then for a while, it kind of sat dead.”
Meanwhile, the Royals stayed in contact with Boyd, who had been helping them house players in another way. As Sharp described it, beginning around 2008, Boyd’s company would identify high-level housing for players, then sublet it to them.
For other players, the Royals established long-term hotel contracts. The reality of such living situations raises challenges. Hotel rooms don’t have kitchens, which makes it harder for players to maintain the nutrition standards that can optimize performance. There are also noise complaints, sleep issues and uncertainties surrounding who is moving in and out of rooms.
Other organizations understood these unenviable elements, so they started to pursue sole-occupancy buildings near their minor-league complexes. Cleveland held conversations with Boyd in 2017 and moved forward, opening its facility in 2019 in Goodyear, Ariz. The Texas Rangers, who share a baseball complex with the Royals in Surprise, built their own sole-occupancy building as well.
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Once Cleveland’s structure sprang from the ground, Boyd took a few Royals executives on a tour of the facility.
“They were like, ‘This was our idea 10 years ago, and here we are going through a team in our division doing it,’” Boyd said. “I think it got those competitive juices going a little bit.”
The Royals then re-engaged Boyd, prepared to push the run across this time.
“Originally, the thought was that we’d build it ourselves,” Sharp said. “The more you get into this, the more you realize, it’s not the building itself, but more the management of the building that becomes cumbersome. A bed breaks. Who’s fixing it? A dishwasher goes out, who’s fixing it? How do you want it set up? Do you want to be in the real estate business? Or, do you just want to lease? It’s no different than, ‘Do I want to rent? Do I want to own? Do I want to lease a car?’ You have to make all of these decisions as you go along. And the more we got into it, the more we realized that, for us, the model that made the most sense, is: Why don’t we have somebody build it to our specs, and get into a midrange lease with them as the sole tenant?”
Boyd, upon hearing of that conclusion, was all in. Land acquisition was the first order of business. There were pricing questions and building specifications. The Royals, though, were steadfast in their goal — one that harkened back to how Stewart described the Royals academy.
“We want to elevate the environment that our players can live and train in,” Sharp said, “so that we maximize the athletes and their experience here, both on the field and off the field.”
The same October morning when the longtime baseball man toured The Fountains, Patrick Boyd sat in a makeshift office inside the development and sipped some coffee. To construct a facility of this size — the interior square footage is 83,000 — he said, “You’ve got to get deep into the matrix.”
Boyd’s Pro Housing Management officially broke ground on the facility in July 2020. The Royals will be their sole tenant on a midrange lease, choosing this approach rather than having to own and operate a piece of real estate in Arizona. Essentially, the decision eliminates a level of risk with the project; the Royals, though, are steadfast in their belief in this building as a long-term answer for optimal player treatment and player development.
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When the first shovel penetrated the dirt, the project’s key players were understandably emotional.
“A lot of our leadership knows how much of a dream this has been,” Leto said recently. “We’ve wanted this to come to life for 15 years.”
What followed the early days of construction was an almost daily back and forth between the Royals and Boyd. They would speak about how to keep the facility looking clean. How to maintain sturdiness for the future. How to implement certain characteristics that the Cleveland facility had proven were necessary such as furniture material (solid wood, metal frames) that will stand the test of time.
“Even though it’s not our property, we’ve taken a very hands-on approach,” Sharp said. “This isn’t to be so baseball-forward that they feel like they’re leaving the clubhouse and coming to another clubhouse. It’s got to be high-level living. A place they’re going to want to be. A place where they can decompress from the field.”
That vision was keeping Boyd busy in October near the entrance. Once you first walk inside, past the palm trees and the pool that give off a resort vibe, a bright-colored space opens up. There is a welcome desk. Beyond that are the players’ lounge with rec games, a couch area and televisions to watch whatever meets the moment; think vast natural-lit Royals-themed mancave. Step into the players’ rooms, which hover on the second floor, and you’ll find a lounge space with a large kitchen. Bedrooms reside to the right and left. Glass windows uphold the feeling of openness, of relaxation.
In November, before The Fountains officially opened, a group of Royals executives converged on Surprise for meetings. General manager J.J. Picollo walked through the facility and was blown away.
“Scott had been saying all along. ‘This is not a dorm room. This is a housing facility,’” Picollo said. “And when you see the finished product, it is. They’re condos. Almost like high-end condos.”
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He sees the impact as multi-fold. For one, the facility will help some players prepare. They can live next to the Royals complex and work alongside Royals strength coaches and skills experts who should have their best interests at heart. Players can now also arrive earlier before spring training and utilize the complex with ease.
When asked about the cost of living, Sharp explained that when players are being paid, they may see a daily fee similar to that of a normal season. When they’re not, such as during the offseason, they won’t have to pay. Hence, the intrigue. A number of Royals prospects who spoke with The Athletic said they were excited to see the facility for the first time during camps this spring.
“It should decrease our early-season injuries,” Picollo said. “The more guys we have training on their feet with the type of training we’re familiar with, the easier transitioning to the heavier workload in spring training will be.”
Leto sees potential in conversations that can occur at the facility between older players and younger ones. Friendships are possible. Connections are inevitable.
“It could change somebody’s life,” he said.
That belief, and the years of conversations that propelled the idea into reality, was felt one night in November. Boyd and Sharp walked through the facility and marveled at the different features. They reached the top deck, which overlooks the lobby, then looked at each other as if to say, damn, the time has finally come.
(Photo by Alec Lewis: The Athletic)
