Braves may move their ST complex to Pinellas County

With the lease of Disney’s Wide World of Sports ending in 2017, the Braves look to move elsewhere.
Disney’s Wide World of Sports lured the Braves when the complex was just finished to use it as their Spring Training complex, but nowadays, the Braves are just a minor player at the complex; in other words, Disney Wide World of Sports does not need the Braves anymore.

So after the 2016 season, the Braves will need a new Spring Training complex.

As a “coincidence” a group of sports partners want to build a a DWWoS like complex in Pinellas County. SportsPark Partners LLC’s plan includes converting the 240-acre site into an “international destination” for amateur and professional sports with athletic fields, a hotel, office space and a sports medicine facility, according to the request for proposal submitted to the county on August 31.

The new sports complex would cost an estimated $622 million and would not only be home to the Braves Spring Training complex with a 10,000-seat baseball stadium with berm seating for an additional 1,000 fans, it will also contain a 15,000-seat fieldhouse for basketball or other indoor events, a track and field facility with 20,000 seats, an aquatic center with a pool and hockey rink and a 200,000-square foot sleeping facility that could house 800 people.

The site where the sports facility is projected is also eyed by other developers who want to develop the site:

Developer Charles Puccini is proposing SunRay Park, a 135-acre solar array complex to include the country’s first movie theater that produces and stores its own electricity. The energy producing complex would also host a hotel, residential buildings and commercial properties that all operate on solar power panels.

Meridian Realty Capital wants to build a town center with recreational facilities and with residential and commercial properties. The developers propose paying the county $1 million for the landfill site to build up to 1,500 houses around baseball fields, tennis courts, a skate park that incorporates the Pinellas Trail and Blue Heron Lake.

So there is plenty of competion for the Braves and their partners. But if the other plans also projects a yearly revenue of $800 million remains to be seen.