The Braves won another $4.7 million in taxpayer money Tuesday night for their planned new spring-training facility in southwest Florida.
The North Port, Fla., city commission voted 3-2 to pay that amount in sales tax money to help fund the approximately $75 million stadium complex.
The facility would be built within the North Port city limits in Sarasota County.
North Port’s commitment is on top of a $21.3 million contribution from Sarasota County. The county commissioners voted unanimously in May to reallocate some revenue from a local tourism tax, collected from hotel guests, to cover annual debt service on bonds that will be issued to fund the county’s share of the construction cost.
The Braves are awaiting word on another big piece of public funding for the project: a requested $20 million grant ($1 million per year for 20 years) from the state of Florida.
In all, the deal would include more than $45 million in taxpayer money, with the rest of the project cost covered by a private developer and the Braves.
A development agreement still must be negotiated and approved.
The Braves have held spring training at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex near Orlando since 1998. They will train there again in 2018 and hope to open the Sarasota County facility in 2019.
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