While the Braves now conduct Spring Training in the Orlando area their contract is up in a year.
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Today, there’s some further information about how that proposal might be playing among that County’s politicians, and we’ll defer to Tampa sources for this information – with some emphasis added by us. With no public money available for Arizona spring-training facilities in the future (a rental-car tax devoted to spring facilities was halted by a judge in a legal battle earlier this year), the Brewers will have to play at Maryvale Baseball Park in the condition it’s in. The team wants to leave Tropicana Field before its lease with the city expires in 2027.
The Braves have become a lesser lessee there, and with Disney moving strongly into more youth sports and tournaments – especially soccer – the Braves announced last April that they were looking for a new spring home.
“The Rays discussion with St. Pete needs to move forward so we’ll know if there will be an ask from the Rays for a new stadium in Pinellas County”, he said. “Eventually you sort of close the door to options for the Rays”.
“We believe that we can enhance and grow (the area’s) baseball heritage by relocating our spring training operations to this new development and Pinellas County”, said Braves President John Schuerholz in a letter to SportsPark developers and county officials. Sheffield previously had proposed building a $34 million baseball complex in Pasco County.
Other bidders for the Toytown property are developer Charles Puccini and Meridian Realty Capital.
Georgia State University would like to convert Turner Field into a football stadium in a $300 million dollar proposal including student housing, residential and retail space.
Cincinnati-based Meridian envisions a town center with retail and restaurant space, about 1,500 homes, a skate park and other amenities.
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The Tampa Bay Times reports that an investment group, a part of which includes the Gary Sheffield Sports Foundation, has made a proposal to build a new spring training facility for the Braves in Pinellas County on a site that served as a garbage dump from the 1960s through the 1980s. That letter was included in SportsPark’s proposal for the site. It will pay the county $1 million, will assume costs of preparing the old landfill for development and expects to create 21,000 jobs. The Toytown landfill has been closed since 1983.
