June 21, 200620 yr http://sports.aol.com/mlb/story/_a/state-o...9990001?cid=561 WTF??? AP TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (June 20) - Five Florida spring training sites are eligible to receive $15 million each over the next 30 years under a bill signed Tuesday by Gov. Jeb Bush that also provides the Orlando Magic with $60 million to refurbish their arena. KW: Sports Bloggers Live Six baseball teams will be able to apply for the money, which would be split into $500,000 annual payments to help keep Arizona's Cactus League from raiding the Florida Grapefruit League. "I got confirmed the Arizona folks are using the same tactics, using government money to lure teams," Bush said. "There's a point where spring training gets in jeopardy ... the scheduling becomes such where it gets harder to keep teams." The Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, New York Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates and Tampa Bay Devil Rays are covered in the bill. An amendment on the last day of the session in early May added the Mets to the original agreement that covered five teams, leaving six teams vying for five slots eligible for the money. The teams now have to apply for the funding, which would be split into $500,000 annual payments for each team. The team left out of the bill would have to be included in future legislation.
June 21, 200620 yr this actually angers me as my city in AZ is trying to build a park, they have the money & land ready to go, they just need to snag two teams to play there - a lot of the stadiums out here are shiny, nice and new and AZ is making a strong play at stealing spring training teams - especially given how many midwestern people we have living here, the size of the metro, the tourist bent of the city and that aside from tucson, most parks are well less than an hour away from each other
June 23, 200620 yr yeah...really looks like the mets could use that free money too...thank goodness so now they can spend money on their players...oh wait...
June 23, 200620 yr This doesn't surprise me nor anger me really. Spring Training baseball has helped provide the state with tourism revenue for decades.
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