SPRING TRAINING BASEBALL UPDATE – FINALLY DOWN TO ONE SITE

SPRING TRAINING BASEBALL UPDATE – FINALLY DOWN TO ONE SITE

Finally, we are down to one. Both the Palm Beach Post and Sun Sentinel had articles on the latest update in the baseball spring training soap opera. That being said, I don’t think this qualifies for a true 2 for 1 blog so do not get overly excited. Yesterday there was another meeting between the Houston Astros and Washington National baseball teams, the City of West Palm Beach and Palm Beach County officials, and it sounds like more progress was made. First and foremost, it was revealed that the John Prince Park site in Lake Worth has finally been knocked from contention. The site was too small, faced opposition from area residents, and from people opposed to using park land for a baseball stadium. This leaves the site in West Palm Beach at 45th St. between Military Trail and Haverhill Rd. as the sole site being considered. Other information that was made public was that the stadium costs will exceed the first estimate of $100 million. How much more it will cost was not specified (although one rumor had it as high as $140 million) but how the overages would be paid for was. It looks like the baseball teams and the City would handle that and the county would own and operate the facility as they do with Roger Dean Stadium. Both sides have agreed to meet again in a couple of weeks. It was noted that the baseball teams are looking to move quickly, and with any luck they can make more progress at the next meeting so as to be in a position to put a final deal in place. So it is West Palm Beach or bust for the Houston Astros and Washington Nationals, and I would say all the pressure is on West Palm now. As we have previous written here, West Palm has been a troubled and declining city for some time. There are some areas of it, and this is one of them, that are so blighted that development is not even being considered there. If they can somehow manage to get this deal done, this area will immediately have a chance. There will be a reason for people and businesses to come there (other than for cheap warehouse space) and maybe it can spread to the rest of the area. Riviera Beach is finally having its moment in the sun, so maybe it is finally West Palm’s turn?? With any luck we will find out soon. As always thanks for reading and have a great day.