As another year of spring training winds down for the Braves at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex, leaving two more years on the team’s lease there, club officials have geared up their efforts to identify a possible new spring home.
“We are in a broad-based search right now in the state of Florida,” Braves president John Schuerholz said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution this week.
The Braves have trained at the Disney complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., since 1998 but might leave after the current lease to get closer to other teams’ camps. When the Houston Astros and Washington Nationals relocate to a planned facility in West Palm Beach, the Braves will have only one opponent in close proximity to Disney: the Detroit Tigers in Lakeland.
Where the Braves might move for spring training in 2018 if the lease isn’t extended remains up in the air. Schuerholz said the organization isn’t in negotiations about a specific location.
“We are fact-finding who is interested and who is seriously interested and who is willing to provide the support required to have a major-league team come to their community,” Schuerholz said.
Names of some possible destinations have trickled out.
John Webb, president of the Florida Sports Foundation, which works to keep spring-training camps in the state, said he heard the Braves had “a meeting or two” about a possible site near the southwest Florida city of Venice. “I (also) heard Naples, heard Fort Myers, heard five, six places they’ve probably had dialogue with,” Webb said.
Venice Mayor John Holic told the AJC on Friday that neither he nor, to his knowledge, anyone else in the city’s government has spoken with the Braves about the idea.
“It’s something that if it were real, I’d be happy to talk with them about,” Holic said. “But I don’t think I’m going to view it as a real possibility until there is at least an opening communication.
“We’ve got room for it, sure. We’ve got great places for it. But I’m viewing it more at this time as just a bargaining ploy with their negotiations.”
Holic added that perhaps the Braves could be interested in a particular large parcel of land that borders his city and has a Venice mailing address, but is outside the city limits in Sarasota County. He said the city hasn’t been informed by county officials of discussions with the Braves.
If the Braves move, considerable taxpayer dollars likely would be involved.
To compete with Arizona as a spring-training host, Florida has a state fund set up to partner with local governments on building or renovating stadiums.
Palm Beach County has pledged $108 million in public funds and the state another $50 million toward costs of building and financing the Astros’ and Nationals’ planned new facility, expected to open in 2017.
Webb’s preference is for the Braves and all Grapefruit League teams to stay in their current spring-training locations. But if they move, his goal is to keep them from going to Arizona. Six MLB teams have moved their spring homes from Florida to Arizona since 1998, and each state now hosts 15 teams.
Schuerholz said unequivocally that the Braves won’t consider Arizona.
He didn’t rule out the possibility of a new lease with Disney.
Some of the team’s behind-the-scenes facilities there, such as the clubhouse, weight room and training room, have fallen far behind newer spring-training stadiums. Although those issues potentially could be addressed with an expensive renovation as part of a new lease, the continuing migration of other teams out of central Florida is a bigger hurdle.
“We haven’t had a chance to discuss with Disney what the future might hold,” Schuerholz said. “But the challenge for both of us in that regard is there will be very few teams near there for us to play … one.
“We are not far enough into this process to eliminate anything or to suggest we have a definite answer. We don’t. We’re looking to prepare ourselves for the eventuality that when our lease expires in a couple of years we may have to have another facility.”
He said the Braves would want to be among a cluster of other teams: “West coast (of Florida), east coast, it doesn’t matter — wherever there is a pod of teams so that we are closer to our opposition. … That’s the great equation for us: Spend more time on the field and less time on the bus.”
The teams currently most convenient for the Braves to play in exhibition games are the Astros, who train in Kissimmee, less than 15 miles from Lake Buena Vista; the Tigers, whose Lakeland base is about 40 miles away; and the Nationals, about 60 miles away in Viera. When the Astros and Nationals move, the Tigers will be the Braves’ only opponent within 70 miles of Disney.
At that point, five teams will be based on Florida’s east coast (including four in Palm Beach County, which the Braves left to move to Disney) and eight on the state’s west coast (three in the Tampa Bay area and the others farther south, including two in Fort Myers).
Schuerholz said the Braves aren’t yet under pressure to make a decision, contending that spring-training stadiums can be built in slightly over a year.
Webb said the Braves probably would need to have a deal done by next spring if they want to move in 2018, allowing time for zoning issues and other matters before construction.
Asked if he gets the sense that an option for a new spring home will be found, Schuerholz said: “I get a sense that I’m hopeful that that will happen, yeah.”
Webb said he suspects there are “probably opportunities out there,” but he noted the costs have grown and must be carefully balanced.
“Ideally the state would like a team to find a home and be there 75 years, like the Tigers in Lakeland,” Webb said. “The economics seem not to work like that.”
