The Atlanta Braves upcoming spring training home in North Port, FL is coming together, as officials reported this week that CoolToday Park construction is nearly complete.
The anchor of the Braves future spring-training complex in Sarasota County, CoolToday Park is scheduled to host one game this spring–a March 24 contest between the Braves and the Tampa Bay Rays. While the Braves will not shift their full spring-training operations to the complex until 2020, work on the ballpark itself is making progress as its lone exhibition for 2019 approaches.
During a meeting on Thursday, Sarasota County officials said that construction of CoolToday Park is over 90% complete. Some finishing touches are being put into place now, putting the ballpark in a position to be ready for the March 24 game. More from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune:
Construction on the $140 million spring home of the Braves, in the city of North Port’s West Villages development, is more than 90 percent complete, county officials said Thursday at a joint meeting of the Sarasota County and Charlotte County commissions. The public plaza, installation of food services equipment and the remainder of ceiling and lighting are nearly done, while landscaping is complete, county officials said. In December, the team estimated the stadium was 75 percent complete.
The stadium, named CoolToday Park, will boast 6,500 fixed seats, with berm, sun deck and group-area seating boosting total capacity to roughly 8,200. Since the October 2017 groundbreaking, about 350 workers each day have labored to have the stadium ready for its first and only spring game of 2019, a March 24 Braves exhibition contest against the Tampa Bay Rays. Before the Braves make the move to North Port for the March game, the team will train at its usual venue at the Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, then end its 22-year run at the Disney World complex.
More than 25 Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte county subcontracting companies have been used on the project.
“The Braves have been great partners with us,” said Carolyn Eastwood, Sarasota County’s director of capital projects. “They have utilized local talent on this project to the greatest extent possible.”
CoolToday Park is set to feature many of the amenities found at newer spring-training venues, including a 360-degree concourse and an outfield patio and bar area. We will have an in-depth preview of the ballpark later this month, as we will be on site for the facility’s press preview.
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