Baseball and Sarasota - As anyone who reads the paper or watches the news on TV knows, we have been working with the Cincinnati Reds to devise a plan whereby we would develop a new baseball facility in exchange for what has become a 30-year commitment from the Reds to keep Sarasota as their spring training home. Soaring construction costs have caught up to this project just as they have many others, so in spite of a state legislative appropriation we are eligible to apply for the local share is considerable. Most of those details have been well reported in the local media, and we continue to explore ways to minimize the impacts of any potential project on city tax payers.

As for public opinion, at one end of a spectrum are the die-hard loyalists who would see spring training and minor league baseball preserved at nearly any price. At the other end are those who don't feel one dime of public subsidy for such an activity is appropriate, regardless of economic impact. In the middle are the majority of people, with all sorts of opinions both on the overall value to the community of such a facility and the validity of economic impact numbers. What do you think about the project, its impacts, or baseball's place in Sarasota? If you're not sure what to think, what questions would you like to see answered?