I think so too. Why is that not being discussed. Great facility and aren't there other teams close by in Port St. Lucie (Mets)?
Ultimately it's the other teams that are the problem—the Mets are in Port St. Lucie and the Cardinals and Marlins are near Jupiter. But (other than the Nationals at present, of course) there are no other teams on the east coast. It's easy enough to get from Vero Beach to Orlando (Braves and Astros) via the Turnpike. Vero to the Tampa Bay area (Yankees, Phillies, and Blue Jays) isn't horrible—straight shot across on Florida Route 60, a four-lane surface road comparable to, say, US-29 between Charlottesville and DC. It's around 140 miles from Vero to downtown Tampa. That's around 15 miles further than it is from Viera. In theory the trip from Viera would be faster since it's all on Interstate-grade highways (I-95, I-4, and the Bee Line), but Orlando/Disney traffic is the wrinkle there, plus it seems like there's always a wreck somewhere on I-4.
It's not as easy to get to places like Sarasota (Baltimore and Pittsburgh) or Port Charlotte (Rays) because most of the drive is on a very rural two-lane road that's prone to getting really slow if you get stuck behind a yokel in the wrong place.
In either case, Vero or Viera, the odds of going down to Fort Myers to play the Twins or Boston are slim, and indeed I note the Nationals don't play either of them this spring training. I've mentioned that my sister-in-law lives up the street from Space Coast Stadium. Her son and his family live in Fort Myers (south of the city center, although we go right past the Twins' facility on the way to their house) and it takes at least four hours one way because you go south to Fort Pierce and then halfway across the state on the same two-lane road mentioned above. Then you drop south on US-27 and FL-80. It's a long, boring drive.
Edited to add: You know, those comments made me wonder—it's customary for the teams to take buses to spring training games, but how much more would it cost for them to fly if they set up in Vero? There's a small airport right next to Dodgertown. The Red Sox facility is right next to RSW airport near Fort Myers and the Twins' facility is a short trip away. Ditto Baltimore and Pittsburgh being near the airport in Sarasota. The airport in Tampa is a lot busier, but no doubt MLB teams are used to arranging the charter flights. Then for the Orlando and east coast games you'd just use a bus. (Melbourne has an airport as well, although it can be a pain in the arse to get there from Viera because it's between I-95 and US-1.)
