Sarasota Commission Rethinks Loss Of Cincinnati Reds

SARASOTA - It's like a teenage romance movie. Town gets baseball team. Town loses team. Team starts courting another town. First town begs team to come back.

After two of the five Sarasota County commissioners changed their positions on a proposal to renovate Ed Smith Stadium, the commission voted to offer $17.6 million toward the project, a decision that could keep the Cincinnati Reds baseball team from leaving its spring training facility in Sarasota.

Now, though, the Reds have entered into an exclusive 75-day negotiating period with Goodyear, Ariz., which ends on April 15. The agreement bars the team from entertaining offers from other cities during that time.

In a move that may be too late to save a soured relationship, Sarasota County commissioners voted Tuesday to offer $17.6 million toward the renovation of Ed Smith Stadium if the Cincinnati Reds negotiations with Goodyear fall through.

One commissioner, and arguably two, changed their positions after an intense e-mail campaign by local businesses and fans upset over the prospect of losing the team. Baseball supporters, many dressed in red, filled commission chambers for Tuesday's debate.

Just three weeks ago only two of the five commissioners were unequivocally in favor of the county paying for the biggest part of a $41 million renovation.

That coolness, city officials thought, led the team one week later to begin talks with Goodyear.

Asked whether the county's action comes too late, John Allen, the Reds former chief operating officer who is heading the spring training talks, said, "Based on where we are today, yes.

"But, you know, there's time. We're in this exclusive negotiating period right now, and I really can't comment beyond that."

Allen acknowledged that he watched Tuesday's debate by commissioners over the Internet.

It was a bit of a tortured debate. In a series of four votes, commissioners tinkered with the deal. Commissioner Nora Patterson, who earlier favored using the tourism tax money that would go to the Reds stadium to make up for property tax cuts, voted to try to rekindle talks with the Reds.

Commissioner Paul Mercier, although he compared the deal to a subprime mortgage, wound up supporting it.

Mercier criticized the city for the limited information it provided throughout the past two years of negotiations with the Reds.

The city did provide one new piece of information Tuesday. Though the cost of the deal in today's dollars is $41 million, it would cost $85 million to make all the payments, including those on the planned 30-year construction bonds, said Chris Lyons, the city's finance director. The deal would be financed with money from the county, the city, the Reds and the state.

The agreement between the Reds and Goodyear not only bars the team from entertaining offers from other cities for a spring training facility, but also it keeps it from discussing any details of its Goodyear talks.

"We certainly are going to abide by the terms of that agreement," Allen said. "We'll see what happens."

The surprising 4-1 vote drew applause from the more than 100 baseball fans on hand. It gave hope to those who feared the deal was dead when it appeared only two commissioners supported the proposal three weeks ago.

"Once the Reds do decide not to stay with Goodyear -- notice how positive I'm being -- they have a fallback position," Sarasota Mayor Lou Ann Palmer said.

Though the city and county cannot talk to the Reds, they can talk with each other. The plan is to put together a package to finance the $41 million renovation so negotiations can start quickly in 60 days if the team's talks with Goodyear fizzle.

Two years ago, there was widespread support for a new spring training complex estimated to cost $54 million.

Funding fell short, and the $44 million raised was not enough for the state-of-the-art ballpark the Reds wanted.

As the economy soured and state lawmakers started cutting property taxes, local support eroded and the county yanked the money it had committed. The deal appeared to be beyond saving in November when Sarasota residents voted down a referendum issue that would have provided up to $16 million in city property taxes for the ballpark.

The Reds said they immediately would start looking for another place to play once the team's Sarasota lease expires at the end of the 2009 spring training season.

In the past month, the Reds have become the pretty girl of spring training, with an offer from Goodyear and a renewed, though scaled-back, proposal from Sarasota.

One of the groups that lobbied hardest to resurrect the county's funding of the deal was the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce. Asked why there was so little public support for the stadium during the past year as funding fell apart, chamber president Steve Queior said, "I don't think people thought it was possible they would leave."

The news in late January that the Reds and Goodyear were entering negotiations was a reality check for supporterse, he said.

Mayor Palmer agreed. "I think that's what woke people up."