County tries to buy out FireFrogs
Indeed this is stunning news. The measure was added to the consent agenda and briefly discussed and approved at Monday’s meeting. According to the Osceola News-Gazette, Osceola County has approved a measure that will pay the Florida FireFrogs $500,000 if the team will leave Osceola County Stadium after this season.
If the team accepts the offer, it will terminate its lease with Osceola County Stadium.
The Atlanta Braves A-Advanced farm team may move to the new ST complex in North Port, just south of Sarasota, the Braves will head to next Spring Training. After twenty years, the Braves will leave ESPN’s Wide World of Sports.
According to documents within the agreement, the $500,000 is being re-appropriated from a Tourist Development Tax fund, and county will save $173,000 a year with the team departing Osceola County Stadium and be able to generate an additional $300,000 a year from “alternate use of the Stadium.”
The original lease between Osceola County and the Fire Frogs was signed in April 2017 for three- years and then a series of 22 one-year opt-in clauses that the team could exercise annually. Monday’s measure would cancel both sides from that deal and creates a new short-term, rent-free deal that expires Sept. 30. The Fire Frogs’ final 2019 home game is on Sunday, Aug. 25 at noon against the Dunedin Blue Jays.
The reason for this move by Osceola County is that the team didn’t pay the rent since 2017 as a result of the fact that the FireFrogs didn’t have an operation license agreement.
In July 2018, the county sent a friendly reminder about the payments. According to Erik Anderson, then the team’s general manager, the county failed to provide or maintain field conditions and “on-site concessions equipment” to “meet the standards set forth in the License Agreement,” and the county’s responses to those concerns.
It isn’t the first time that an alleged of lacking maintenance is the cause of a feud between a baseball club and the city/county it is located at. The quarrel between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Maricopa County comes to mind.
If Osceola County and the FireFrogs may not come to an agreement, the case may go to court., according to County Attorney Andrew Mai.
To be continued…