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Fort Myers eyes Brewers as spring-training tenant

Officials from Fort Myers want to stem the flow of teams moving spring operations from Florida to Arizona by luring the Milwaukee Brewers to the Gulf Coast.

Officials from Fort Myers want to stem the flow of teams moving spring operations from Florida to Arizona by luring the Milwaukee Brewers to the Gulf Coast and City of Palms Park once the Boston Red Sox move to a new training facility.

The targeting has nothing to do with any feedback from the Brewers front office; it's because the Brewers are one of the few MLB teams not tied into a lease for spring-training facilities. The Brewers' deal at Maryvale Baseball Park ends after Spring Training 2012. There's really nothing wrong with Maryvale Baseball Park; the complex is perfectly nice, but there's nothing of interest in the immediate area.

We've been told repeatedly by those in the know that there's little chance of the Brewers shifting to Florida: Brewers ownership is out of Los Angeles, which makes Phoenix an easy jaunt. Fort Myers isn't a strong draw, and there are many, many in baseball who don't see the Fort Myers are supporting four MLB teams for spring training. Still, Fort Myers officials can be expected to go through the motions anyway.

The Brewers' position as a member of the Grapefruit League is somewhat of an accident of history. It made sense for the expansion Seattle Pilots to train in Arizona, but not so much after Bud Selig bought the team out of bankruptcy and moved it to Milwaukee. However, Selig made the decision to keep training in Phoenix anyway — he owned a winter residence in Scottsdale.

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