Sox looking at Sarasota

I guess this is where we old folks note that Sarasota was where the Red Sox trained before moving to Arizona in the late 1950s and, so, aside from training where we currently have a rookie league team, making life more convenient fro everyone, this would be a return to the place where, for instance, Ted Williams frist appeared in a Red Sox uniform.

Gosh!!!!!! I hope not! The Red Sox has become a family to all of us that are here during the Spring Training. We have brought our kids, our grandchildren, friends and all have learned to love the team. We buy tickets to as many games that we can no matter that the cost is soaring. Why would they ever want to leave this area? Sarasota is a good hour and half north of Fort Myers. We have more people in Lee County than the area of Sarasota could even think about going to a game. Sarasota does not have an international airport. People travel over Alligator Alley from the east coast without any real problems to go to the games here. Do you think that they want to travel another hour and a half to Sarasota? They also come up from Naples. You know land is cheap here right now, so why not buy and build
a new stadium? As a kid I use to take the bus in to Fenway and see a game, now it's like they are leaving Fenway and forgetting the very people that love them. How sad that they would leave another area that has now got that same loving feeling!

Sarasota is a beautiful city and reminiscent of old style Florida, also this is the former winter home of the Ringling Bros/Barnum and Bailey Circus. Many of the local museums and landmarks are legacies of Mr. Ringling so it's good to know that if the Sox do move there, the locals are already used to circuses and spectacles!

I don't know much about Sarasota but the park at Ft. Myers is so beautiful. I love how the perimeter is palm trees. It seems like such a waste to let it go. Plus, the environmental impact of building a new stadium and possibly abandoning the old should be considered.

Kathern, FYI: Sarasota had an international airport decades before Ft. Myers did. The Bradenton-Sarasoata area is quite populous. As for people traveling from out of town, Sarasota is less than an hour from Tampa-St. Pete.

The difference between Sarasota and Fort Myers is like Lexington and Everett. Sarasota is a "monied" City where Fort Myers is a pick up, gun rack in the rear kinda town. The stadium is great in Fort Myers and easier to get to for east coast Floridians - many of them ex Bostonians and New Englanders.

But none of the arguments to stay or leave will matter since the Sox like every other baseball operation will play one County against the other for the economic development "incentives." Not surprisingly, it's all about $!

I think the Sox should move their spring training to Hartford. Real men play a sport no matter what the weather! Go Whalers!!!

Sarasota would be a great place for the Sox. The Nation is alive in Sarasota!!! Fort Myers has the Twins. The Sox need their own town!! The Sarasota Sox has a great ring to it, as it did not to long ago when the 'A' ball franchise was in Sarasota. Sarasota is ready to replace the Reds. Make the deal!!!

We, as members of the city of Sarasota and citizens of Sarasota County support the Boston Red Sox spring training in Sarasota. Baseball is good for the economy and great for the community.

Citizensforsox.com

Fenwayian in Fort Lauderdale: Your observation of Sarasota compared to Fort Myers couldn't be further from the truth. You may have never been here or to Sanibel, Captiva, Bonita Beach or any of the areas around Fort Myers. Sarasota is nice (St. Armand's and the beach) but the only gun-rack type of place around Fort Myers would be north or east of the city... which the same can be said for Sarasota. There is nothing in SW FL like Everett..... or Lexington for that matter. Thank God.

Jim Nagle: RSW served over 8 million passengers while Sarasota-Bradenton only served about 1.5 million. RSW has direct flights to BOS while Sarasota-Bradenton does not. Sarasota would have to figure out how to get a few more direct flights there.