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Site selected for new Sox spring training complex
CLEVELAND - The Fort Myers News-Press has reported in the last hour that the Waterman-Pinnacle land has been selected as the new home for the $80 million Red Sox spring training facility.
The Lee County Board of County Commissioners have convened and made the choice. Red Sox chief operating officer Mike Dee was on hand for the decision. The site is located on Daniels Parkway near Southwest Florida International Airport.
The Naples Daily News also posted the following updates on their website late this afternoon:
HOK Sport and Parker, Mudgett, Smith Architects will design the new spring training home of the Boston Red Sox and Kraft Construction will build it.HOK, with help from the Fort Myers firm that's also done work at City of Palms Park and Hammond Stadium, will get slightly under $5 million to design the stadium.
Kraft Construction of Naples will oversee construction. The fee will be 4.5 percent of the total construction cost, estimated at from $50 million to $70 million.
The county also agreed to a financing scheme that will see commissioners "borrow" stadium funds from county reserves. That loan will be at 1.5 percent for a year. The county will have a workshop in the meantime to determine the feasibility of entering the bond market.
The plan is to repay the loan from tourist taxes. Commissioners have agreed to dedicate 20 percent of the tax revenue to baseball, a total of about $4.4 million this year.
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Red Sox CEO Mike Dee said he knew the Waterman site was out there when the site location criteria were selected.
"We don't view this as a closed book," Dee said.
Dee said he expected he'll be involved in the negotiations with Waterman, which will begin right away. The deal faces a June 1 deadline to have the site nailed down, and the Sox want to play in the new stadium in 2012.
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Dee thanked Lee County for working so hard and leaving no stone unturned in looking for the right site for the team's new spring training home.
Dee called the new 30-year deal struck before Christmas a truly comprehensive deal, one that six months later remains on-point.
Dee reminded commissioners of the site selection criteria included in that agreement, which he said remain spot-on. He read the criteria in fact from the agreement.
Dee said the layout of the stadium and other uses - all submittals included a proposed layout - needs more work. He said the team stresses the importance of what happens around the stadium.
"There's a saying you can't have a great ballpark without a great neighborhood," he said. "Fenway is a great place. The neighborhood around Fenway is also great."
How about showing the current stadium location on the map as a point of reference!
Let me be the first to say...the new place will likely have no soul.
The current spring training experience starts by giving a guy ten bucks to park on his lawn. And then having a nice conversation with him. And he offers you a beer. It just goes on from there. At the new place, you will most likely pull off the interstate and go into remote control for the whole Spring Training Experience, much like other soulless facilities.
I am glad that I attended many games in my past.
Now they need to build a Dunkin Donuts and a CVS nearby so us snowbirds will feel at home!
If it was for those knucklehead Sarasota politicians the Sox would be coming here.
Bo$ton Red $ox now even putting their Spring Training facility out to the highest bidder.
Absolute terrible location, BTW
Can not believe that Fort Myers is going to pay for this...Fort Myers has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the USA....
Maybe if the Sox didn't throw away $100 mil on Lugo and Drew they would pay for the new facility....
What a strange choice. There is no neighborhood at that location. I guess I can see it from a commissioners point of view. Plenty of open space and no voters to complain about a ballpark going up next door. Also, probably no traffic problems at that site.
Great idea....Glad that the team is staying in the area...
Go Red Sox
From Boston
go to the end of daniels parkway take a right on us41 -cleveland ave- go through about 15 sets of lights and take a right on edison ave and you will find city of palms park
SOUNDS GREAT. I WOULD THINK THAT THEY WOULD MAKE THE FACILITY FAN FRIENDLY AND THIS WILL BRING FURTHER DEVELOPMENT TO THE AREA. FORT MEYERS, FANS AND THE SOX WILL BENEFIT. GET ON THE TRAIN ITS HEADED TO THE FUTURE.
Some of the best chocolate in the world at Norman Love's will be close to the new stadium. Guys can buy some to earn forgiveness for their wives or sweeties they left home by the pool while they frolicked at the games in the new stadium.
4.75 for a bottle of water I wont be back
In these crushing economic times the Red Sox are acting like the “Other Team” in the Bronx. I have been to Ft. Myers with my son a couple of times and it was a great experience. Putting a financial gun to the head of Ft. Myers because the current minor league training facilities are 1 mile away reeks of arrogance by Sox management. As in all professional sports, the Sox are not dealing with the real world. I am getting very close to the point of saying “thank-you for 2004 and take care but I have to go now and do other things, have a nice life.”
In these crushing economic times the Red Sox are acting like the “Other Team” in the Bronx. I have been to Ft. Myers with my son a couple of times and it was a great experience. Putting a financial gun to the head of Ft. Myers because the current minor league training facilities are 1 mile away reeks of arrogance by Sox management. As in all professional sports, the Sox are not dealing with the real world. I am getting very close to the point of saying “thank-you for 2004 and take care but I have to go now and do other things, have a nice life.”
If you use 41 to get to City of Palms you are a tourist! The location chosen has been a local boom town since the airport expanded...not only is there a Duncan Donuts nearby (at the light) but there's plenty of hotel, office, industrial, restaurant and shopping as well...and the yuppie crowd will be happy to learn there's one of the few drive-thru Starbucks with a block or two of the facility. Daniels is clearly one of the prime thoroughfares in Ft. Myers. City of Palms won't go wanting which will make Sprint Training in SW Florida even better! As to downtown "soul" the writer has a point, but the Sox facility always suffered from the split between training and playing facility. To get a better idea of what it will be like, just pay a visit to the Twins' facility nearby (with two miles, in fact) to see how it will feel. And I guarantee this architectural group, with Ms. Smith involved, will make it far better than the Hammond facility. Port Charlotte took a roadside ballpark mess and turned it into a fine community draw with baseball happening nearly nine months of the year, thanks to the Florida State League. They too suffer high foreclosures, but these communities know that the spring training draw is an economic engine that they cannot allow to sputter or spurt off to Arizona. I'm pretty happy with the location, thouugh I too will miss handing my parkijnng money to the Faith Baptist Church...but they'll be getting it from Cleveland or Baltimore fans I am sure!
There's a Bass Pro Shops right near there which is pretty cool . . .
Terrible site. Anything east of I-75 (which this is) makes it a real P.I.T.A. to get to from anywhere west of the river. Way to thumb your nose at everyone from Cape Coral, and the SW ft. Myers area. Once again, money talks and the patrons be damned.
PS the Twins are out that way and they can't sell out a bar with free drinks!
Why did,nt the sox look at the dodgers beautiful facility in vero beach, empty?
Speaking of "knucklehead Sarasota" politicians according to Walt, I can honestly say you are correct. The County Commissioner - Jim Ley is "The King of Polident" who has derided Democrats in the past, but now has his hand out to the "Democratic controlled U.S. Congress" to obtain funding for highway building - another "Democratic" policy that has its origins in the Great Depression. When the land he got for the Sox could not be used for that purpose, he proposed to the Sarasota County Commissioners - (His Bosses) to build a public park even though he cut public park staff! They gave us Prez Bush in 2000! Knuckleheads.
I congratulate the city of Sarasota for not giving in to the outrageous demands of Mike Dee and his front office flunkies.
The Red Sox wanted to locate their balpark in an area of the city that would have brought downtown traffic to a standstill for the entire month of March. The city told them to pound sand, so they went and took complete advantage of Fort Myers instead.
Here's the dirty little secret about spring training: Nice Florida towns are packed in February and March anyway...regardless of whether the town has a ballclub training there or not. That is why smart towns like Sarasota are telling carpetbaggers like John Henry to take a hike.
Hey Mitch: you made a lousy pitch! I had it out with Sarasota County, Jim Ley and he threatened to sue me for exercising my "U.S. Constitutional Right of Free Speech" about the way HE DOES NOT ADMINISTER AND ADDRESS ISSUES. I can assure you that being from Boston, I am very satisfied that the Red Sox saw through "this petty commune" and Sarasota will not earn MORE tax revs from New Englanders. One more thing: Sarasota forgot to put the "Red Tide" they experience in August and September in their flimsy traveling brochures.
I live in Sarasota and would have loved to have the Sox play here again as they did in the 40's -50's. However, the $$$$ that the Sox wanted spent here was ridiculous.
City of Palms Park is fine. The few miles to the training facility is an easy trip.
It makes no sense that FT Myers is paying for another stadium to be built and also hoping that Baltimore will move to City of Palms. Ths poster who thinks that the Indians might move there hasn't followed the fact that they moved to Arizona and certainly are not moving back to Florida.
This is the poorest location and now when you get there the only thing you'll see is a park. When the players and fans arrive they will be in the middle of nowhere and have to drive many miles for a decent meal, hotel, shopping, entertainment and to the beaches, which are the reasons for being near THE GULF. Too bad the public and politicians are constantly beaten down and succumb to the wants of a few shortsighted groups. Enjoy the games suckers!
All of you people criticizing the new location for the Red Sox training site don't know what you are talking about. This place is in the heart of the Ft. Myers growth area. Plenty of commercial locations and easy access for residents. The roads next to the park lead to everywhere. There could not have been a better choice. There will be more money spent before and after the games in the surrounding area than there is now at the old stadium. Plus, if you get fed up with everything, you are soooo close to the airport that you can leave immediately.
Red Hose to stay for 30 years...Awesome...All we need now is some YAZ bread...The site is in an ideal location...access will be easy from all directions...Richard was right about the Twins having a great facility, and let's hope that the Sox can enjoy the same...
Red Hose to stay for 30 years...Awesome...All we need now is some YAZ bread...The site is in an ideal location...access will be easy from all directions...Richard was right about the Twins having a great facility, and let's hope that the Sox can enjoy the same...
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