Spring Training Online

The prospects of a Baltimore Orioles move to Sarasota for spring training brightened significantly last week when the team agreed to a reduced budget and offered $5 million toward maintenance toward a new complex.

The Orioles are still sticking with the idea of replacing Ed Smith Stadium, the current spring home of the Reds, with a new facility. But the reduced budget may make it easier for county tourism officials to pledge 1 percent in tourist-tax revenue for the baseball complex.

Dodgertown and Holman Stadium, which will sit empty during Spring Training 2009, may be even quieter after Aramark basically shuts down operations at the Dodgertown Sports and Conference Center in Vero Beach. Aramark served notice to the state that 98 employees would be laid off -- which, we've been told, is basically the entire workforce -- as Aramark shutters business-meeting areas, hotel rooms and banquet rooms at Dodgertown. The future of Dodgertown and Holman Stadium is in doubt: Indian River County and Vero Beach officials have dangled $13 million in improvements to the Orioles as John Angelos and crew work toward finding a new spring-training home. There has been talk of a summer-collegiate Florida Collegiate State League taking up residence next year, but Vero Beach is quite a ways from the league's base of operations in the greater Orlando area, though a team in Cocoa may also be a good idea for some territorial balance.

Sarasota officials have put together a plan to woo the Baltimore Orioles' spring-training base by spending upwards of $55 million on a complex that could include a new ballpark or a renovated Ed Smith Stadium.

The complex currently housing Cincinnati Reds spring training will be vacated in April 2009, as the Reds move spring operations to Goodyear, Az.. Sarasota says it will renovate the camp to the Orioles' specifications, which includes a 7,500-seat ballpark.

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.