A story in the Fort Myers News-Press states that the Washington Nationals have extended negotiations with Lee County to relocate their spring training home from Viera to City of Palms Park in Fort Myers. I think it would be fun to see another big league team train in Fort Myers and you have to think the Minnesota Twins would also like to have another team training in the area if for no other reason then just having another team to play with little to no travel time. However, the implications of such a move of another big league team from the Florida east coast to the gulf coast might not be good for the Florida Grapefruit League circuit in general. If the Nats were to move their spring training site, the only team left on the east coast would be the Marlins, Mets, and the Cardinals. You can read the story here.
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It’s hard to imagine where Lee County will come up with the money to make the Nats happy. Maybe some kind of “we’ll do things a little at a time over a few years” arrangement? Guess it depends on how badly the Nationals want out of Viera. I wonder who really has the leverage here. If the Nats REALLY want out of Viera, there aren’t a lot of apparent options that wouldn’t require building a new ballpark from scratch. But if Washington is willing to say they’ll just stay in Viera as long as it takes to get Lee County to give them what they want, it becomes Lee who’s got a poorer negotiating position as they sit there with a stadium that’s pretty much completely idle and really no other MLB franchises even reported to be thinking about moving at this point.
It would make ST games dicey for the Cardinals, Marlins and Mets, for sure, but it would also do the same for the Gulf Coast League rookie teams. Those teams already just play teams within their division (East, North, South) and it would leave the East Division with just 3 teams. Maybe who you play isn’t as important as just getting innings in at that level, though.