ABC7 Sports: Noah’s Notes

Sox to Sarasota? The Voice of Reason

A lot of buzz is surrounding Sarasota’s efforts to steal Red Sox’ spring training from Fort Myers, but once again, members of Red Sox Nation in Lee Co. have no need to panic yet.

Even as residents of Sarasota form a grass-roots group, “Citizens for Sox,” to try and rally support for a new stadium deal there, there remain an incredible number of hurdles for Sarasota to replace their departing spring training team (the Arizona-bound Cincinnati Reds).

1. Lack of community support.  The 300 excited “Citizens for Sox” who attended the group’s first rally are just a drop in the bucket when it comes to the general population of Sarasota County.  The voters there have already turned down a $16M referendum to keep the Reds in-town…now the city and county want $70M for a new team?  Most elected officials there have said they won’t commit any taxpayer dollars to baseball without constituents’ approval.
2. Lack of funds.   One of the few places hit as hard by the housing crisis as Lee Co. is Sarasota Co.  A huge drop in property values - and thus tax income - is destroying every firehouse, police station, and public works department in the county.  Paraphrasing what I saw one interested party write on a message board, “$70M to for a professional sports team?  Hope they patrol the streets and repave the roads too!”  The best plan I’ve seen so far to raise the necessary funds relies on an increase in the hotel tax.  However, it would only raise about $40M over 20 years….well-short of the $70M Sarasota would need RIGHT NOW to get a deal done.
3. Lack of land.  Sarasota is eyeing a plot of land where the very popular county fair is currently held.  However, in addition to several other buildings on the property, the fair itself provides a great challenge to the stadium plan.  Because of their lease with the fair, the county would need to find new land for the fair to be held, then convince fair organizers to move there.  Since the relationship between county and fair officials has been strained in recent years, this is more easily said than done.  In fact, Lee Co. Deputy Manager Bill Hammond - the same guy who helped bring the White Sox to Sarasota in the 70’s - believes $70M may not be enough to satisfy both the Red Sox and fair officials.
4. Lack of momentum.  Unfortunately for Sarasota’s politicians, they won’t steal the Sox simply by generating headlines.  They’ve done very little groundwork so far on raising real funds- all they’ve accomplished is spending tens of thousands of dollars on studies to see if the Sox would be profitable and if the fair can be relocated.  Sarasota also lacks the positive relationship Lee Co. has with the franchise.  Because of their incident-free history with the Sox, Lee Co. and Fort Myers will have every opportunity to match Sarasota’s stadium proposal.

To borrow a line from the O.A.R song of the same name, “that was a crazy game of poker.”  It’s no shock that the Red Sox are playing both cities for the best-possible deal.  That’s just what you do in business (The Boston Globereports that Vero Beach’s efforts to get involved in the competition were politely declined).   And right now, Fort Myers is calling Sarasota’s bluff.

That said, I expect the competition to reap big benefits for the Sox.  I think Sarasota will manage to put together an offer somewhat short of their $70M vision and Lee Co. will retaliate with a deal for a new Sox stadium - bigger and fancier than City of Palms Park - sometime next decade.  It should keep the team, its $30M+ annual impact, and its huge charity donations in Lee Co. through 2030 or so.

It won’t be cheap, but hopefully the economy rebounds by then and everyone in metro Fort Myers can look back and thank the Red Sox for contributing to the recovery.