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Sarasota stadium talks trip over environmental clean-up

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By ROGER DROUIN

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: July 21, 2009

SARASOTA - The $31 million deal to bring Baltimore Orioles spring training to Ed Smith Stadium has hit a snag over potential environmental cleanup at the stadium, which used to be a landfill.

Lawyers for Sarasota, Sarasota County and the team are negotiating.

City commissioners delayed a vote on a pivotal agreement in the deal until Wednesday to see whether the three parties work out something.

City commissioners said they found out Monday morning that the city would be responsible for the cost, hours before they were slated to vote on an agreement that would turn over the stadium to the county. The county in turn would operate an improved Ed Smith Stadium where the Orioles would train.

The city's vote Monday was one of the final hurdles after 10 months of negotiations with the team.

Commissioner Suzanne Atwell said the agreement "looked good to me." That was before she saw a revised version Monday that specified the city would be responsible for any costs associated with environmental impacts.

Cleanups at other contaminated sites have cost the city more than $1 million.

The Orioles are the third team that local officials have negotiated with as they try to keep spring training baseball in Sarasota.

The Cincinnati Reds played their last spring game at Ed Smith Stadium in April before moving to their training facilities to Arizona.

Commissioner Terry Turner said city officials should have the right to approve the project if the city has to pay for environmental clean up.

In the current draft, only the county would approve the improvements.

Because there is no limit to how much the clean-up could cost, a yes vote on the current draft would amount to the city writing a blank check, said City Attorney Robert Fournier.

Atwell was hopeful that the deal with the Orioles could be done by the end of the week.

"I think we can have a meeting of the minds," she said after the baseball discussion at Monday's meeting. "I want to make it happen."

Those involved in negotiations say the team wants to start training in Sarasota by spring 2010. Construction at Ed Smith Stadium would happen sometime after that.

"We need to resolve this by the end of the week," said County Attorney Steve DeMarsh.

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