The Atlanta Braves are now all but assured of being ensconced into a new home for Spring Training for at least 30 years, starting in 2019.
The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported yesterday that the Sarasota County Commission has unanimously approved the most important of the final documents – the facilities agreement – that will define the agreements made between the Braves, the city of North Port, the West Villages Improvement District, and the County regarding the financial arrangements and facilities use.
At this point, the remaining tasks to be completed prior to ground-breaking involve the following:
- A few more document approvals, apparently considered to be routine in nature
- The packaging of all agreements into an application to the State of Florida’s Sports Foundation
- The Foundation’s approval of that application, which would result in a $20 million state grant
The paper reports that this application should be ready to file within “the next two to three weeks”, and the West Villages developer has already been in contact with the Sports Foundation to insure that everything they need will be in order when the package is submitted.