Indian River County and Vero Beach officials say they're close to landing the Baltimore Orioles as a tenant for the now-vacated Dodgertown spring-training complex, and they expect an announcement by the end of this week or next week. Keep in mind they've been saying they're close to a deal with the Orioles for several weeks now, so the real issue is if they're really close. The deal, as it's been described to us, involves the lease of the Dodgertown spring-training complex to the Orioles, and the redevelopment of the former golf course next to Dodgertown for use as a Ripken Baseball Academy. What we've also been told, however, is that the Orioles are waiting to see what happens with Boston and Fort Myers before making a final decision; indeed, the government entities only recently sent another updated proposal to the Baltimore brain trust. And the continual proclamations by Indian River County and Vero Beach officials about a deal being just around the corner makes one believe the Orioles are taking a wait-and-see attitude.

Plans for a Stadium Village next to Surprise Stadium are on hold after the foreclosure on six acres of land next to the ballpark. The plan was an ambitious 70-acre project creating a new downtown in Surprise, with a portion of the project at the spring home of the Kansas City Royals and the Texas Rangers. But the weakening economy and the sheer weight of the project teams to chase the developers into foreclosure. Yes, there's been some activity in the area -- like a 115-room Holiday Inn Express and some scattered office and retail -- but it could be another five years until the buildout of the area is completed. More from the Arizona Republic.

Spring training in 2009 will run Feb. 14 through the end of March, with games beginning around Feb. 25. The long-than-usual schedule is to allow players to participate in a drawn-out World Baseball Classic, slated to run March 5-March 23. Under a normal schedule, spring training -- in terms of the players reporting -- would begin Feb. 20. It is a complicated thing, to be sure: MLB players on the WBC rosters of China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, as well as pitchers and catchers, will report on Feb. 14. All players will report by Feb. 17. No games will be added to the spring schedule, however; it does mean more open dates during March.

The Boston Red Sox and Sarasota county and city officials will begin formal negotiations over the funding and design of a new spring-training ballpark and training complex, with the first sitdown meeting slated for 9 a.m. Friday. The two sides have been trading proposals for the last month and spent a rather engaging evening in a suite at Tropicana Field recently when the Red Sox visited the Tampa Bay Rays. There's already broad agreement on the scope of the project: a 9,999-seat ballpark with berm seating, luxury boxes and parking. The Red Sox began the negotiations asking for all the revenues from the project (including concessions and parking) without putting any money up front; the city and county are expected to counter with some sort of request for upfront money. We doubt the Red Sox will put any money into the project, though some advance of rent may be possible; it's more likely the team would scale back its demands for all the suite and parking revenue to make the project financially work. Under the plan, the new ballpark would be built in Payne Park -- where the Red Sox trained in the Ted Williams era -- and the current Ed Smith Stadium site would be converted to a training facility.

Meanwhile, Lee County officials say they've identified four sites that could accommodate a new Red Sox training facility, though it's not clear there's any appetite from a developer to actually build a training complex. Judging by the lack of enthusiasm from those interviewed for this article, it's hard to say there's a lot of passion to keep the team in Lee County.

With spring training slated to be almost a week longer than normal in 2009, the Chicago White Sox are looking at a plan that would have them train at a new complex in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale and fulfill their lease obligations at Tucson Electric Park by busing in players for "home games" while playing the rest of their home games in Glendale. Some reports peg the number of contractually obligated games for the Sox at the TEP at 15, but that seems high to us (most leases call for 10 to 11), so we'll be checking on that. With a long spring training, 10-11 games in Tucson isn't a huge obligation, but it seems Tucson would be getting the worst of both worlds.