Spring Training Online

Sarasota officials say they need a little time to review a proposal from the Baltimore Orioles for a $65-million spring-training complex. As discussed in last night’s county commission meeting, the proposal calls for revenues generated from the tourist tax to pay for a renovation of Ed Smith Stadium, currently the spring home of the Cincinnati […]

The Cincinnati Reds paved the way for a 2010 spring-training move with a groundbreaking of a new Goodyear, Az. spring-training complex. The $33-million complex, located south of Interstate 10 along Estrella Parkway, doesn’t look like much now: it’s basically a dusty field like so many other dusty fields in the southwestern corner of Phoenix. But […]

Pima County Commissioners accepted Chicago’s offer of $5 million to break the team’s spring lease in Tucson, freeing the way for a White Sox move to Glendale next spring. In the end, county commissioners decided not to keep the White Sox to their Tucson Electric Park lease, which ran through 2012. The White Sox had […]

One of the great joys of spring training is the relatively cheapness of the best seats in the ballpark. You need to work pretty hard to spend more than $35 on a prime behind-the-plate ducat. The Los Angeles Dodgers are blowing that formula right out of the water. After announcing the team’s spring-training schedule — […]

Sarasota officials have put together a plan to woo the Baltimore Orioles’ spring-training base by spending upwards of $55 million on a complex that could include a new ballpark or a renovated Ed Smith Stadium. The complex currently housing Cincinnati Reds spring training will be vacated in April 2009, as the Reds move spring operations […]

Dodgertown and Holman Stadium, which will sit empty during Spring Training 2009, may be even quieter after Aramark basically shuts down operations at the Dodgertown Sports and Conference Center in Vero Beach. Aramark served notice to the state that 98 employees would be laid off — which, we’ve been told, is basically the entire workforce […]

After months of flirtation with Sarasota, the Boston Red Sox decided to go with the sure thing and signed a 30-year lease to keep spring training in Lee County in a new facility. Sarasota had aggressively courted the Red Sox and were close to a deal until officials decided to demand $10 million upfront from […]

We’ve posted schedules for the Cleveland Indians, Florida Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals. They’re tentative, but we’re pretty confident they will hold up. You can expect teams to begin releasing schedules now that the World Series is near an end. Besides these teams, we’ve also posted partials for the Atlanta Braves, New York Mets, Seattle […]

To say the future of spring training for two teams and three cities will be determined in the next three days is an understatement, as Lee County officials debate an $80-million deal to keep the Boston Red Sox and Sarasota officials look for $10 million to close an $80-million deal for a downtown facility at […]

The Fort Myers newspaper has decided why the Boston Red Sox are looking at spring-training operations to Sarasota: it’s not because of the promise of a new ballpark or land for limited development — it’s the fact co-owner John Henry reportedly would prefer to spend February and March in Sarasota because he finds Fort Myers […]