Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Yankees Will Not Move Tampa Yankees To Ocala


There has been speculation that the Yankees would move their High A Tampa Yankees squad to Ocala, Florida but that deal has fallen through and New York has backed out of any proposed deals. The deal is not completely dead, it is categorized as on hold until April, but the Ocala community does not seem completely sold on the idea of having the baseball stadium there. Obviously the community would have to be the one to shoulder the proposed tax hikes and such to pay for such a stadium and now the city of Ocala is out the $300 K they spent trying to lure the Yankees there.

This is not the first time the Yankees have tried to move the Tampa Yankees or a deal has fallen through, remember the Yankees tried to move their High A affiliate to Orlando back in 2010. The $45 million new ballpark deal in Ocala was agreed upon in October and would have been ready by Opening Day 2016 before the deal fell through. The Ocala Community was upset was held up over a half a cent tax over the next 10 seasons... half a cent.

Here is the quote from Ocala City Council President John McLeod:

“While we expected to bring the community together with this project, it has unfortunately become a source of division.”  “They were a little taken aback at the first county commission meeting where they were expecting a little bit more united support, and they didn’t get that. That’s politics. That’s the way things go sometimes.”

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)