Red Sox Reach Deal For New Spring Training Facility in Ft. Myers
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Red Sox' New Spring Training Facility Will
Include 9,999-Seat, Fenway-Replica Ballpark |
The Red Sox Saturday signed an agreement to build a new Spring Training facility in Ft. Myers, Florida, and the partnership will keep the Red Sox in Lee County for at least the next 30 years. The Red Sox and county officials will work to design and construct a new single-site facility, scheduled to open in 2012 (Red Sox). In Boston, Amalie Benjamin reported the new ballpark will have 9,999 seats, with "standing room and berm seating that will increase capacity to 12,000." The City of Palms Park, where the Red Sox have held Spring Training since '93, has a capacity of 7,290. Benjamin noted one of the "most important parts of the new facility for the Red Sox is that it will be a single-site facility," as the team currently has minor league practice facilities in a different location. The new ballpark will include "six practice fields in addition to the stadium." The Red Sox' proposed Spring Training facility in Sarasota "would have had separate locations as part of the Payne Park site." The new stadium will be "constructed to resemble" Fenway Park. Red Sox COO Mike Dee indicated that with the upcoming vacancy at City of Palms Park, the team is "on board with Lee County attempting to lure a third team to the area," joining the Red Sox and Twins, who host their Spring Training at the Lee County Sports Complex (BOSTON GLOBE, 11/2).
MORE TO THE DEAL: Lee County Commissioner Ray Judah said that the new facility "could become the anchor to a mega-sports complex that could include an aquatics center and potentially a football stadium" for Florida Gulf Coast Univ., if the school "decides to start a program." Judah also "sees the new complex being utilized much more than City of Palms Park," and noted that there will be the "potential to host concerts and other events to generate income" (NAPLES NEWS, 11/2). In Ft. Myers, Glenn Miller noted the new lease "does not have any out clauses." Judah said that the Red Sox would like the new ballpark by 2012, but "would be willing to wait until 2013 for the entire facility to be ready." An opening in 2012 would mark a 100-year anniversary from the 1912 opening of Fenway Park, but Dee said that is "not a goal." Dee: "I would say it just happened that way, but we were cognizant of it" (Ft. Myers NEWS-PRESS, 11/2). In Boston, Sean McAdam noted the project comes with an estimated cost of $80M, to which the Red Sox "will not contribute beyond a yearly lease payment of $500,000, with scheduled increases every five years." Under the new lease, the county "must provide financing details" in early '09, and an "architect and developers will then be selected in the spring" (BOSTON HERALD, 11/2).
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With The Reds Moving Spring Training To
Arizona, Sarasota To Be Without Baseball |
OUT AT THE PLATE: In Sarasota, Roger Drouin noted Sarasota officials offered "several sites and promises of a $60[M] stadium complex in an effort to woo" the Red Sox away from Ft. Myers, but "money was always the bottom line and in the end Lee County came up with $20[M] more than Sarasota." The Reds, who host their Spring Training in Sarasota, will move to a facility in Arizona in 2010, which means Sarasota "could be without baseball" after next season (Sarasota HERALD TRIBUNE, 11/2). Dee said of the deal, "The more we looked around and the more the process unfolded, the more comfortable we became that we belonged right at home where we are" (South Coast STANDARD-TIMES, 11/2).
BIRD CALL: In Baltimore, Jeff Zrebiec reported Vero Beach and Indian River County (FL) officials are hoping that Orioles Owner Peter Angelos and team execs "will meet as early as [this] week and approve an agreement that would make Dodgertown the team's long-term spring training home starting in 2010." Negotiations between the Orioles and the county expired Friday, but government officials are "prepared to give the team time to review the offer." But the Orioles have "long maintained they are committed to staying" in Ft. Lauderdale, where the club has held Spring Training since '96 (Baltimore SUN, 11/1).
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