Red Sox in Sarasota?

For many years, Ed Smith Stadium over at 12th and Tuttle has been the spring training home for the Cincinatti Reds. The Reds are leaving us after the 2009 spring training session, and I wasn't really in on that controversy. But now the news is that the 2007 World Champion Boston Red Sox are looking at Sarasota as a new training camp venue, and Sarasota is looking at the Sox: http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080603/NEWS/806030314/1661

I'm not a big sports fan but I did go to my first major league baseball game a few weeks ago in Tampa (The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Chicago White Sox, thank you very much) and it was great! I would be delighted to go to spring training games in Sarasota. That declaration probably won't weigh heavily on the City's decision, though.

What the Powers That Be will be considering is whether the presence of the Boston brand will bring dollars to our area -- enough to justify the inevitable expenses. I'm thinking it would sure bring some folks from Massachusetts to buy second homes & retirement homes ... but in what numbers? Do any AR bloggers have first-hand experience with what happens when a high-profile team comes to town for the spring?

This promises to be a hot-button topic in local politics here for a while!