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July 14, 2008
petition against sarasota stadium subsidy
There's now a petition against using public funds to subsidize baseball in Sarasota. Let me be clear about this issue... I don't care what team is moving here. Having the Red Sox in Sarasota would be a nice novelty. I love baseball; however, the Sarasota government should not be subsidizing baseball with public funding. The economic benefits are exaggerated. If spring training baseball was truly important economically, finding private funding for this project would be easy. If enough private investors want to bring the Red Sox to Sarasota I'm all for it. The only reason cities waste millions of dollars on these projects is due to public support.
But it's not likely that the Red Sox are going to move to Sarasota. Lee County seems determined to keep their team, and most of what is going on in Sarasota is posturing by organizers. The city commissioners haven't really gotten involved yet and I don't expect the city to move on this topic unless there's overwhelming support. So far, the excitement about this is tepid at best.
People are getting fired up about this issue. The Sarasota Herald Tribune ran an article about the Fairgrounds and the comments section has a fiery debate. Here's my favorite comment. I'm neither elite, old, ignorant, or short sighted, but I've complained before about this nation's lack of economic understanding.
Posted by m.mccas | Jul 12 at 8:32:56 GMT-0700 a.m.
I noted this morning that 126 signature had been gathered for that ridiclous petition to stop public funding for the Red Sox. Pathetic effort, give up. It seems as if a bunch of Sarasota's elite old folks and ignorant electrate are trying to gum up this deal too. You people are so short sighted it is truly amazing!
Posted by nemov at July 14, 2008 12:10 PM
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