The Baltimore Orioles and Sarasota County have reached an impasse in negotiations for the team's potential move to Sarasota -- and the impasse is very serious, causing the Orioles to send Cal Ripken Jr. to the Gulf Coast city yesterday in an effort to sway some opinions.

The Orioles are proposing a $65-million makeover of the current Cincinnati Reds training complex and adjacent fields now controlled by Sarasota Youth Baseball. A new 7,500-seat ballpark would be built next to Ed Smith Stadium, with a Ripken Youth Baseball Academy nearby. Sarasota Youth Baseball would lose its six-field complex and share a smaller complex with the Ripken academy. Proceeds from the county hotel tax would fund the construction and renovations.

There's the very real chance Lee County and Fort Myers will lose the Boston Red Sox as a tenant, but don't say county commissioners don't think big: they want to bring in a third team along with the BoSox and the Minnesota Twins. That would put four teams in the general region (the Tampa Bay Rays are moving spring-training operations to nearby Port Charlotte next year). It is an interesting strategy: while the Red Sox inch closer to a Sarasota move (both sides have exchanged terms for a move; Sarasota County is slated to make a counteroffer this week). At this point it's all wishful thinking: there doesn't seem to be enough money to building the Red Sox a new facility, never mind the money to build a facility for two. (Plus, we're not quite sure the Red Sox want to share a facility, what with a solid offer from Sarasota already on the table.) The issue isn't whether the market can support three teams -- it can -- the issue is whether Lee County and Fort Myers have at least $100 million for new facilities. More from the Fort Myers News-Press.

In an effort to break their lease for Tucson Electric Park and move spring training operations to a new ballpark in Glendale, the Chicago White Sox have proposed instituting a year-round youth baseball tournament facility and youth academy at the expense of the White Sox and run by Major League Baseball. The White Sox would pay to upgrade existing playing fields and adding four more to the Tucson Electric Park complex. The youth academy would be centered on local youth and their development, focusing on lower-income and minority kids, given them training and guidance at no cost. The expanded facility would then be poised to snare more baseball tournaments year-round.

The youth-baseball field is already a crowded one -- though a lucrative one, admittedly -- and MLB is developing expertise in the area by launching other youth academies across the nation. The White Sox and a Scottsdale consulting firm say the economic impact of this proposal would be $46 million -- far more than the $30 million annually brought to the area by spring training. The study assume four dozen youth tournaments would each bring in about $1 million in spending. Then there's the issue of possibly expanding the scope of the proposal to include college squads.

But the bigger issue is the impact on the quality of life in Tucson, because if the White Sox leave you can bet the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies will be leaving as well. Both teams have clauses in their contracts allowing them to bail on Tucson should there be fewer than three teams training in the area, and both have explored moving spring-training operations to Phoenix. And there are many residents who would rather keep spring training, even at an economic loss. So the decision on whether to let the White Sox go is an important one indeed. More from the Arizona Star. The Tucson Citizen editorialists are skeptical.

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.