Atlanta Braves Exclaim “I Can’t Get Away From Disney World!”

Braves Reduced to Begging for a Spring Home Away from Orlando

It’s getting to be equal parts comical and pathetic at the same time.  Virtually every foray the Braves have made into finding a new Spring Training site has been either rejected, delayed, rebuffed, or politely refused.

Far from the promotional advertisement made famous after Super Bowls past, the Braves have a quite opposite problem:  they simply can’t seem to get away from Disney World.

Just last week, it appeared that Atlanta might have to wait out the politics for a proposed site in St. Petersburg as the Tampa Bay Rays had priority for relocating themselves within the area.  MLB had instructed the Braves to back off in their pursuit of the Toytown site along with Gary Sheffield’s SportsPark group.

At the same time, though, there were signs suggesting that the Braves perhaps didn’t wish to wait on that to play out, as they failed to attend a negotiating meeting with Pinellas County concerning Toytown.  No one at the meeting knew what to make of that, and the team declined to comment.  If Atlanta were to pull out of this partnership, it would surely doom the Sheffield proposal.

The Latest – Digging for Scraps in Palm Beach County

For 35 years, the Braves wintered in West Palm Beach, so the area would be a natural fit… assuming that disappoint about their departure in 1998 have worn off.

But it may not matter anyway.  They’d already been beaten to the punch.

Last March, the Braves inquired with Palm Beach County Mayor Shelley Vana about the possibility of returning and were told “You’re a little late.  It’s already done.”

What was “done” was an agreement between the county, the Washington Nationals, and the Houston Astros. Palm Beach County is spending $113 million from their tourism tax funds, joined with up to $50 million from the state of Florida to build a $144 million dual complex for these teams – hoped to open for business in 2017 (that will be a tough schedule to meet).

One of the Braves representative admitted that he wished they “would have gotten here sooner.”  One has to wonder if planning for SunTrust Park perhaps got in the way of this priority, for certainly the lead times involved in political considerations as well as construction indicate that the Braves should have started at least a year earlier.

All of this wrangling does point out how remarkable it is that SunTrust Park came together so quickly.  It will be 2-1/2 years between that announcement and its opening next April.  Even if Atlanta were to match that speed for a new Spring home now, it would be 2019 before that could become a reality.

Why yesterday’s news is so puzzling.

John Schuerholz was quoted by the Palm Beach Post as saying “We have a chance for a homecoming now, we hope”, meaning a return to the Pam Beach County area.

This is strange since (a) it’s coming quite literally out of the blue, (b) there are no formal proposals on the table for any location in the county, (c) the county has already chosen to spend their hotel tax receipts on the Nats/Astros complex, and (d) the Braves haven’t yet had any meetings with County officials to even discuss the feasibility of such an idea.

After being quiet about the process for so long, suddenly Schuerholz is being very public – without any means of support behind the comments.

Me thinks he might have been trying to use the media to drum up support?

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