May 31, 200818 yr The City of Fort Lauderdale and the Baltimore Orioles has been working to keep the O's spring training base in the Venice of America, but they were thrown a curveball by the Federal Avation Administration. The FAA owns the land involved, and it just increased the rental fee ten-fold. What the FAA wants to do is expand the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport which sits next door. Hence, it raised the rent knowing Ft. Lauderdale and the Orioles would no way in hell pay for it. This obviously has land grab written all over it. Hence, spring training baseball will end in South Florida (Miami/Ft. Lauderdale) with the Orioles expected to take over the Dodgers' vacated Vero Beach facility.
May 31, 200818 yr That sucks. I went to Ft. Lauderdale Stadium in March for my first spring training game and it got rained out.
May 31, 200818 yr That sucks. I went to Ft. Lauderdale Stadium in March for my first spring training game and it got rained out. I was at that game too. And I was also there the next Tuesday. And two weeks before.
May 31, 200818 yr you know...as much as I love having Spring Training in my backyard, we forget how lucky we are to have Spring Training 1-2 hours away as well, so it's not a huge loss. I'll miss it, but we still have it... plus, a new team in Dodgertown...keep it alive, I say!
May 31, 200818 yr I loved having Spring Training 15 minutes away growing up, but the fact is that stadium was seriously crappy.
June 1, 200818 yr yep stick a fork in it, but I was hopeful with the agreement to renovate that the O's could stay, now thats done.... but after driving to Port St Lucie and Dodgertown for the first time this spring I can appreciate the fact that it is a major PIA for teams to drive to FTL to play the O's..... this will put all teams closer together and Roger Dean is a fine park, but damn I'll miss the place, saw my first game there in 79 when Balboni was playing for the FTL Yankees and caught the Yanks there in 95 before the left.... and i thought the food there was better than Dolphin Stadium..... oh well just expand the airport, and knock down that hideous Lockart too......
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