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Group Seeks To Bring Red Sox To Sarasota

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By ROGER DROUIN

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: May 13, 2008

SARASOTA - Elsie Souza started out at City Hall with a question: Who is in charge of the grass-roots effort to bring Boston Red Sox spring training here?

It turned out to be her.

Souza, wife of local Habitat for Humanity director Tony Souza, has so far pulled together a group of about a dozen people, including real estate agent Michael Saunders, the father of a Sarasota High baseball player, and a few business boosters.

She hopes to be out front with as many people as she can gather to push local decision-makers to bring the Red Sox here.

They want to get a quick start, after watching a community effort that mobilized too late to keep Cincinnati Reds spring training in Sarasota.

The group does not have a Web site yet, but Souza is promising a full-fledged campaign.

"Whatever it takes," she said. "This is bigger than anything that has hit Sarasota in a long time."

Souza said she will have an e-mail address up within a week. For now, City Commissioner Kelly Kirschner is directing e-mails to her.

Kirschner said the community group is a good start. "Support has to come from more than just the city commission table," he said.

Souza's group will be talking about the economic benefits, including how good the team has been for Fort Myers, if the city or county ends up asking voters for more money to build a stadium.

City officials say they don't know how much the stadium will cost. But it is likely to cost more than the $41 million deal for a renovated Ed Smith Stadium for the Reds. The Red Sox want a stadium bigger than the 7,500-seat stadium, and the team also wants practice fields in one spot.

One option for the new stadium is the 90-acre fairgrounds off Fruitville Road. City Manager Robert Bartolotta said he will meet with fair board members soon; city officials aim to have a conceptual deal together in two months.

As the community group gears up to make a push for the new stadium project, city officials are preparing to hire a consultant to conduct an economic impact study on Red Sox spring training.

The Cincinnati Reds announced earlier this spring that they are moving to Arizona after a lobbying effort led by the city and the team failed to get enough support for a referendum to pay for a new stadium. The citywide measure failed by 225 votes.

Next, a group of about 60 business leaders lobbied county commissioners to approve $17.6 million in tourist tax for a renovated Ed Smith Stadium. By the time the funding was approved, the Reds were negotiating with Goodyear, Ariz., where the team will start spring training in 2010.

Virginia Haley, president of the Sarasota Convention and Tourism Bureau, said the Red Sox lobby will be different from the beginning.

The Reds were mainly the leaders of the last stadium lobbying effort, Haley said.

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