I don’t remember the exact numbers I estimated when I originally started going off on diatribes about the Braves’ new Spring Training facility that’s being built in Sarasota, Florida, but I do recall it being somewhere in the range of 40-50% more than what was estimated. Because if there’s one reoccurring pattern in the development of stadiums is that there is a 150% chance that whatever is originally estimated, will be exceeded, and by no small amounts.
That being said, it’s about as shocking as finding out that the WWE’s Enzo Amore has been accused of sexual misconduct, that the Braves’ original estimation of somewhere around $80 million dollars for their new training grounds, has risen.
Somewhere in the revisionist history of the timeline of this unnecessary extravagance, I’m pretty sure the original price tag was set at $75 million dollars. Apparently, prior to the start of the new year, it was revised to $100 million, and as of this morning, it’s been confirmed to have hit $110 million. I want to say that in my earlier rants about this bullshit facility that I predicted that it would top out at around $125 million.
However, due to the rapid rate in which the revised increases are occurring, at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole shebang ended up being $140 million. And if we’re hitting $140 million, why not just go for a nice round 200% final cost and bump it up to $150 million? I’m sure facility-wide wi-fi, or air conditioned-vented seats inside the corporate box suites for a spring training facility that gets used heavily two months out of a year could easily have $10 mil dropped on it by the Braves, naturally at the expense of Florida taxpayers, and inflating the cost of spring training game day tickets for the fans.
Whatever though, screwing taxpayers and fans is par for the course when it comes to the daily operations of the Atlanta Braves. As much as the organization touts “the Braves Way” when it comes to conduct from the players and personnel of the sports team, there’s a completely different Braves Way when it comes to how the upper-tiers of the non-sports and business puppeteers of the company operates. Shrewd negotiating, covert tactics, guerilla operations and a complete disregard for the plebes and their nickels and dimes that ultimately shape all of their greedy visions and objectives.
That’s the Braves Way, at the corporate level. $110 million as of January 2018, and we’ve still got 12 full months and change for that figure to keep climbing up, prior to the mandatory reporting of pitchers and catchers in 2019, marking the official start of operations. I’ll set the over/under to $140 million dollars, and I’m taking the over.
