Do you believe in miracles?
In a stunning turn of events, Osceola County Commissioners rejected spending $98 million to build the Washington Nationals a new park in a 3-2 vote, despite impassioned pleas from Nationals officials.
With an intro like that we know where the Florida media stands on the proposed stadium plan.
“You came to us,” said an incredulous Art Fuccillo — executive vice president of Lerner Enterprises, owners of the Nationals — after hearing the commissioner say they wanted to table it for 30 days before voting no on the matter. “We were in talks with Arizona and in Fort Myers and you came to us. You laid out the red carpet. You have to figure out if you want baseball. We’re going to play somewhere. We’re clearly disappointed.”
Entitled much? What an jerk? Begging for corporate welfare and that's his attitude. What an idiot? This is only a one month delay and those comments don't help his cause.
Listen to the big shot spouting off about Fort Myers and Arizona as though they were viable options. As I recall Fort Myers said no, there is no money available to upgrade an old ballpark in a crappy location, and the Nats were asking them for one hell of a lot less money. As for Arizona, the Nats already have about the worst attendance in spring training, cut that in half if they move across country, they'd have to market primarily to bring in opposing fans.
Oh, and he's pissed because the council wants to wait 30 days to vote, well the Nats have had a non-disclosure agreement in place until last week. If it's such a great deal why hide it from the public until a few days before the vote? Shady. He's right about one thing though, this delay wasn't too help the proponents, it's strictly the opposition who will be using this time to rally support against the project.
But the second team never materialized and that might be what spooked Osceola officials. It had been widely reported that the Toronto Blue Jays would leave Dunedin and join the Nats in Osceola. But now, they appear to be headed to Palm Beach Gardens.
That right there is about the best chance to save this deal, bring in the Jays and it gets approved, otherwise we're freaked.
www.floridatoday.com/article/20130716/COLUMNISTS0317/307160024/John-Torres-We-ll-get-another-swing-Nationals?nclick_check=1
