Atlanta Braves Exclaim “I Can’t Get Away From Disney World!”
For Those Who Came In Late
For those who may not be fully aware, Florida is a fairly large state – even when just considering the lower portion of the peninsula.
Over the years, Grapefruit League participants have generally clustered themselves on one coast or the other. Still, this stands in stark contrast to the Cactus League teams, which all seem to be within a Driver-3 Wood combination from one another. In Florida, there’s some actual travel required between home sites – especially as schedules generally dictate no more than two games at home at a time.
Once Washington and Houston relocate to West Palm Beach, only the Tigers and Braves will be left in the middle of the state. The Tigers at least have the advantage of being close-ish to the Tampa Bay area, with 5 natural opponents in that region.
Starting in 2017, Atlanta will be faced with a minimum 125 mile trip – each way – to Port St. Lucie, FL to reach the closest opponent on the East Coast (the Mets) or 75 miles to reach the closest West Coast team (the Yankees). Beyond that, it’s 120 miles to the Orioles, 150 to the Cardinals and Marlins, and a whopping 200 miles to Ft. Myers. where the Twins and Red Sox are.
So figure four hours on the bus plus a spring game (about 4 hours counting early arrival)… that’s an 8 hour day and hasn’t even included time for workouts. That’s the problem the Braves have put themselves into: no time for the traveling contingent to get anything done… other than playing the game itself.
The Choices From Here
Atlanta’s options for leaving Disney (their lease expires after 2017’s Spring) are limited at this point:
- Temporarily move in to the facility being vacated by the Nationals at Viera (adjacent to Melbourne on the East Coast). That location has been around almost as long as the Disney World, but is still being maintained.
- Talk to Vero Beach. For close to 60 years, this was “Dodgertown”. This community embraced the team, but the facilities can best be described as “historic” or “quaint”, and it is doubtful that the county could come up with their own $100 million to lure the Braves.
- Inquire about expanding current facilities in Port Charlotte where the Rays train. Space appears to be available, though new fields and support buildings would be needed. In this case, though: no stadium need be built.
- Continue the “hat-in-hand” approach that Schuerholz seems to be embarking on in hopes that some coastal town might adopt them as their own.
More from Tomahawk Take
- Atlanta Braves 2012 Prospect Review: Joey Terdoslavich
- Braves News: Braves sign Fuentes, Andruw’s HOF candidacy, more
- The Weakest Braves Homers Since 2015
- Atlanta Braves Sign Joshua Fuentes to Minor League Deal
- Braves News: New Year’s Eve comes with several questions about the 2023 Braves
In yesterday’s PBP article, Schuerholz was asked about how that search was going:
"Schuerholz wouldn’t discuss the names and number of communities the team has talked with. Asked if one had the edge over the other, he replied: “I don’t know how you measure those things. Every community we are talking to we are talking to seriously."
If he’s starting to make cold-turkey declarations that he’d like to return to Palm Beach County, then I think I can tell you how it’s going. It’s not. And this news has all the earmarks of a team that’s getting desperate – grasping for straws that aren’t long enough to hold on to.
The most optimistic part of the story was this from County Commissioner Steven Abrams, who represents the affluent southern portion of the County. Despite admitting that getting the help of the city (Boca Raton) would be hard, he was “willing to keep an open mind, considering how the Braves could be a big draw.”
Let’s hope that this ‘Hail Mary’ from Schuerholz spurs more of that optimism from those who would be willing to financially support such an effort.