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Lawmaker's Goal: 'Steal' Arizona Team To Train In Sarasota

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By JOE FOLLICK

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: March 11, 2009

TALLAHASSEE - State Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, is pushing a change in the law that would allow Sarasota to keep state money while seeking a Major League Baseball team to replace the Cincinnati Reds as a spring training attraction. This is the Reds' final spring training in Sarasota.

She said her goal is to "hopefully steal teams from Arizona," where tax breaks have led to six teams leaving Florida since 1998.

Detert said her hope would be to attract one of the nation's premier teams, the Chicago Cubs, to Sarasota. But she said that wooing the Cubs was strictly an idea right now. There was an air of desperation in Detert's pitch, which was unanimously approved Tuesday by the Senate Commerce Committee.

"Before they lose their spot forever, let's give them 12 months of shopping time to try to find another team," Detert said.

"Sometimes you don't appreciate things until they're gone," she said, "and the general public needs to start picturing no baseball in Sarasota."

Major league teams such as the Cubs might be interesting in Florida because they have found the grass is not always greener in Arizona. Attendance is down nearly 20 percent this season for teams in Arizona. The Cubs still lead the Cactus League in attendance, but their average is 3,000 fewer fans per game than last season, USA Today reported this week.

The Palm Beach Post reported last week that several teams in Florida have seen attendance drop by 15 percent to 20 percent.

Sarasota is one of 10 cities in the state receiving up to $15 million over 30 years to help maintain spring training sites. Efforts to entice the Boston Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles to Sarasota from other Florida cities failed.

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