The Braves’ long search for a new spring-training home in Florida continues, with the team rekindling interest in a possible return to Palm Beach County.
The Palm Beach Post reported Friday that business and government leaders in the central part of the county "are buzzing with optimism" about a proposal to build a Braves spring-training complex in John Prince Park near Lake Worth.
But it remains unclear whether Palm Beach County is willing to spend considerable taxpayer dollars on a Braves stadium.
County officials have said no tourism-tax dollars are available because of previous commitments toward a stadium opening this year in West Palm Beach as the shared spring home of the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros.
The Braves’ proposal is for a single-team facility.
Braves Vice Chairman John Schuerholz told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last month that the team remained in talks with Palm Beach and Sarasota counties.
On Dec. 13, commissioners in southwest Florida's Collier County unanimously rejected further negotiations with the Braves about building a complex in the Naples area, saying public money should instead be spent on beaches and roads. A feasibility study by Collier County suggested a Braves facility would cost about $100 million and would be funded largely with taxpayer dollars.
The Braves trained in West Palm Beach for decades before moving their spring base to Disney World in 1998. They’ll remain at Disney through 2018, but aim to have a new facility open for spring 2019 to get closer to other teams’ sites on either coast of Florida.
The latest plan for a Palm Beach County facility shows a 9,500-seat stadium with six practice fields, The Post reported.
One Palm Beach County commissioner, Mack Bernard, told the newspaper he likes the idea of a fifth MLB team training in the county and is “open to discussing” the Braves possibility, but might not support spending property-tax revenue on a stadium.
The Braves have been searching for a new spring home for two years.
"It has been slow going — not because of anything we haven't done or haven't done properly," Schuerholz said last month. "We've got people on the ground, mostly in Palm Beach County, and we had some contacts working on our behalf in Collier County as well. But it didn't work out there.
“We’re still in communication — still grinding along — with Palm Beach County and also Sarasota County.”
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