Atlanta Braves’ Morning Chop: tickets for new stadium mention wrong city

This sounds like a relatively minor goof, but it’s something that the local political leaders tend to take personally.

Original plans, hopes, and dreams were that the Atlanta Braves would be spending their Spring at a new facility in North Port, FL this year.

Delays in the complicated negotiations and multiple levels of official approvals pushed that back a bit, though there will be one game – the last of the Grapefruit League contests – held on March 24 as the Braves christen CoolToday Stadium.

However, there’s a bit of an identity crisis going on, and there’s more than a bit of annoyance coming from local officials about the game.

You see, if you look to buy tickets for this event, you might end up in the wrong place.

On VividSeats.com, a search for Atlanta Braves’ events in Florida on March 24 will get you to a place where you can order (expensive) tickets to see the Braves open their new Spring facility against the Tampa Bay Rays.

However, the venue’s location is said to be Venice, FL… not North Port.

Younger siblings get dissed

North Port is a relatively new town, as these thing go, but this budding burg was already identity-challenged, having been originally known as North Port Charlotte.

Part of the problem is that Port Charlotte, FL is located in adjacent Charlotte county, and North Port is in Sarasota County… literally carved along the southern Sarasota county boundary.

So in 1974, the town voted for a name change to the present-day ‘North Port’… presumably so that the town would not be confused with its namesake… especially important to them now that North Port’s population is actually larger.

But problems like these tend to persist, and it seems that Those Who Do Such Things apparently confused the location of the stadium when they entered this event into the database.

What’s Venice?

Venice is a coastal town, 12 miles from the center of North Port, and itself has a couple of ‘spin-off’ municipalities between here and there:  South Venice and Venice Gardens.  Plantation, FL is nearby as well, to the SE of Venice.

While Venice has been around for a lot longer, its population is less than half that of North Port.

Actually, if you consider city centers, the nearest city to CoolToday Park is really Plantation… but that’s not going to fly with North Port any more than a reference to Venice does.

As it is, North Port appears to be busily annexing land to its west to ‘fill up’ the gap between the current ‘critical mass’ of their town and Plantation.  That will include the West Villages development within which CoolToday Park resides.

But as far as North Port is concerned, this is their stadium… after all, they put their own stake of cash into the deal:  $30 million over a period of 9 years.

For the record, CoolToday Park’s address is 18800 South West Villages Parkway, North Port, Florida, 34293.  It’s just off the South Tamiami Trail (US 41), at the West Villages Parkway.

You can’t miss it… unless, of course, you’re selling the tickets… in which case, the address is ‘19503 W. Villages Parkway, VENICE, Florida 34293.’

That zip code is likely a big part of the problem… the Post Office is using it to cover multiple city limits.  And they don’t care.

The Reason for the Steamin’

Since this new facility is the biggest ‘outside’ economic draw in town, city leaders kind of wanted to make sure that people coming to see game would learn a bit about them.

In fact, part of the deal included this:

"Those items include using North Port’s name in advertising for the facility, protecting the city from liability, giving preference to local contractors in construction and allowing more public use of parts of the facility."

Oops.  Somebody forgot to tell VividSeats… and other brokers… about that clause.

The mix-up did get news coverage… and vice-mayor Debbie McDowell was quoted as saying “the [city] commission is looking into ways to get North Port listed on ticketing sales”.

However, that same news coverage – NBC affiliate WBBH/WZVN Channel 2 (Fort Myers) – finished by declaring this:  “The stadium is about 50 miles north of Fort Myers“… not North Port.

Some towns just can’t catch a break.