Spring Training Online

One of the great joys of spring training is the relatively cheapness of the best seats in the ballpark. You need to work pretty hard to spend more than $35 on a prime behind-the-plate ducat.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are blowing that formula right out of the water. After announcing the team's spring-training schedule -- which you can see here -- the Dodgers also announced the top ticket for spring training was $125 for a premium (i.e., weekend) game. Almost 700 seats for every game will be sold at that price.

The Cincinnati Reds paved the way for a 2010 spring-training move with a groundbreaking of a new Goodyear, Az. spring-training complex.

The $33-million complex, located south of Interstate 10 along Estrella Parkway, doesn't look like much now: it's basically a dusty field like so many other dusty fields in the southwestern corner of Phoenix. But Goodyear officials are hoping the move of the Reds -- coupled with the move of the Cleveland Indians to a nearby complex and ballpark in 2009 -- serves as an economic stimulus for the community.

Pima County Commissioners accepted Chicago's offer of $5 million to break the team's spring lease in Tucson, freeing the way for a White Sox move to Glendale next spring.

In the end, county commissioners decided not to keep the White Sox to their Tucson Electric Park lease, which ran through 2012. The White Sox had no legal out to the airtight agreement, so persistence and the prospect of doing the bare minimum to fulfill the lease (like training in Glendale and playing a minimum number of games in Tucson) caused Pima County officials to decide unanimously to let the White Sox go.

The Arizona Diamondbacks confirmed ongoing talks with four potential operators of spring-training sites in the greater Phoenix area, including the Gila River Indian Reservation. (We hinted at this yesterday with a reference to a river running through of the potential spring-training training sites.)

The Diamondbacks have trained at Tucson Electric Park since the team's inception, but the decision by the White Sox to move operations to a Glendale facility triggers an out clause in the team's lease with Pima County, giving them freedom to move should there be only two teams remaining in Tucson. The Colorado Rockies have the same clause in their lease for Hi Corbett Field (which is slated to end in 2011 anyway), and in the past year Rockies officials have openly discussed a spring move to Phoenix as well.

Sarasota officials say they need a little time to review a proposal from the Baltimore Orioles for a $65-million spring-training complex.

As discussed in last night's county commission meeting, the proposal calls for revenues generated from the tourist tax to pay for a renovation of Ed Smith Stadium, currently the spring home of the Cincinnati Reds, as well as an expanded and upgraded spring complex. The Orioles would also work with Ripken Baseball to bring a year-round youth baseball academy to the city as well as provide free advertising for Sarasota tourism on Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, which reaches television viewers in both Baltimore and Washington, D.C.