Palm Beach Gardens commissioners heard an impassioned pitch for a new $100 million spring training baseball complex from a representative for the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals at a public meeting yesterday.
Mike Bauer, also general manager of Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, pushed for the proposed stadium on Palm Beach County-owned land during the meeting, at Palm Beach Gardens City Hall. The Marlins and Cardinals play their spring games at the Jupiter stadium and Bauer said the Florida teams need opponents to play during their training season, and the stadium would help to attract them.
A Palm Beach Gardens stadium would be used by the Houston Astros and Toronto Blue Jays, the Palm Beach Post reported.
The project would include 26 baseball diamonds and an extension of Shady Lane Drive. Recent county appraisals project a $5.8 million price tag for the 82-acre site’s development. The county paid $3.1 million for the land, near Central Boulevard, in 2000. [Palm Beach Post] – Eric Kalis