With the Baltimore Orioles poised to sign a 30-year lease for a renovated Ed Smith Stadium, the future of City of Palms Park is in doubt after the Boston Red Sox move to a new spring facility in 2011.
With the Baltimore Orioles poised to sign a 30-year lease for a renovated Ed Smith Stadium, the future of City of Palms Park is in doubt after the Boston Red Sox move to a new spring facility in 2011.
Fort Myers and Lee County had been negotiating with the Orioles for a lease, an effort that may have a little, little life until the Orioles actually sign the Ed Smith Stadium lease. It was always a tough sell: the Orioles would have been the third team in the market (and we're not so sure Fort Myers could handle three spring-training teams) and basically been prohibited from running a Class A Florida State League team in the future thanks to territorial issues.
So without a tenant in place, the future of the ballpark is in some doubt. It's an OK spring-training facility, and Lee County officials think they can attract another team; Milwaukee, whose Phoenix lease ends in 2012, will be heavily courted by many cities in Florida and Arizona. But we can't imagine a move to City of Palms Park is particularly appealing to Brewers officials: they'd be the third team in a midsized market, they'd be moving to a lesser facility (Maryvale Baseball Park may be in a crappy neighborhood, but it's a very good facility), and there's just no way for the Brewers to monetize a move with a straight lease.
City officials, meanwhile, would rather just tear down the facility and use it for other purposes. Because of this debate, we've added City of Palms Park to our list of Endangered Ballparks.
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