Atlanta Braves Now Looking East for a Spring Home
In an exclusive report today from the Palm Beach Post, Joe Capozzi reports that the Atlanta Braves are showing plans for a new Spring facility to local leaders on the Atlantic side of the Florida peninsula.
Sarasota County is not yet out of the picture, but the Atlanta Braves are continuing to move forward with plans to build a new spring complex…. somewhere in Florida.
According to Capozzi, representatives from the team were in Palm Beach County in December showing a revised site plan for the Lake Worth, FL area.
The plans included a 9,500 seat stadium and six practice fields across a 70 acre region of John Prince Park, located 5 miles west of the Intercoastal waterway in southern Palm Beach County.
It was last April that we first relayed information on the first plan involving this Park in Lake Worth. A follow-up report one month later indicated that no funding had been secured – and that seems to be the case today as well.
The difference in December’s plan is that while the Braves would be carving out a space for themselves in the same Park, the region would be different – an area that could address many of the concerns that local residents had for the space being taken over by Atlanta.
But It’s Still About Money
The proposal seems to be well-received from the local government officials contacted by the Palm Beach Post – certainly a contrast from the veto received from Collier County last month.
But none of that support helps find any cash to support the effort, expected to require between $80 and $100 million in some sort of Braves-plus-local-government partnership.
Tourism tax revenues? Not available. Sharing in a 1-cent sales tax increase approved locally in November? Nope.
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The State of Florida has funds available to assist in such endeavors, but that’s only around $20 million. Palm Beach County is open to being creative, but the ideas tossed around so far – such as property tax revenue and contributions from surrounding communities – do not sound like high dollar solutions.
The Braves are still a local favorite in the area, having Wintered in West Palm Beach from 1963 through 1997, but the fact is… they’re too late.
The Astros and Nationals will shortly descend upon the area as workers are racing to finish their new complex a bit further up Interstate 95. That’s where the development dollars were spent.
That’s where Sarasota County may have a prime opportunity: they still have some money to spend.
Regardless, expect both communities to continue to wrangle with Atlanta before this is resolved.
Next: Wis-tling Past the Bullpen?
A decision needs to happen quickly, for Spring 2019 will be here before they know it. We’re a long way from breaking ground on either coast.