Tired of losing MLB teams and their spring camps to Arizona, an influential Republican lawmaker says Florida should look at spending state money to lure the Cubs and Brewers once their camp leases expire.
Tired of losing MLB teams and their spring camps to Arizona, an influential Republican lawmaker says Florida should look at spending state money to lure the Cubs and Brewers once their camp leases expire.
Sen. Mike Fasano (R-New Port Richey) says that while finding state money for spring training at a time when the state is running at a deficit will be difficult, something must be done to lure teams to the state for spring training. With the Cubs able to leave their lease next year and the Brewers' lease expiring the year afterwards, now's the time to begin negotiations with the pair. Naples officials have already targeted the Cubs for a move, although at the present team management is fixed on finding sites for a new complex in the greater Phoenix area.
“We have an obligation to do what we can as a legislative body to keep the teams we have in the Grapefruit League and make sure they stay here,” Fasano told News Service of Florida. “Florida once was – and still is – the spring training capital of the world, and we need to keep it that.”
And while Fasano's position as a committee chairman gives him an important say in what happens, any sort of state money will surely be a hard sale. Still, the discussions have begun.
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