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Red Sox would have been better served leaving Ft. Myers, says mayor

Boston's new spring training facility put the county $143 million in debt.

By Randy Booth
J. Meric

The mayor of Ft. Myers, Fla., which is the home of the Boston Red Sox's spring training site, said "it would have been smarter to let the Red Sox move on" than to build JetBlue Park last year, according to Thomas Himes of the News-Press.

The three baseball stadiums in Lee County will cost more than $436 million over the next 32 years, according to the report. Mayor Randy Henderson said the county would have been better off without "Fenway South."

"It would have been smarter to let the Red Sox move on," Fort Myers Mayor Randy Henderson said. "I would debate that we wouldn't be any worse off, in fact, I think we would be better off."

JetBlue Park put the county $143 million in debt. It also vacated City of Palms Park, which the Red Sox used to call their spring training home, according to the report.

JetBlue Park features a Green Monster and "The Triangle," just like Fenway Park. It has seating above it and behind it, as well as a manual scoreboard. The state-of-the-art park has a capacity of 11,000 and sits next to six practice fields.