CLEARWATER, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Next week, both the city of Clearwater and Pinellas County officials will vote on the final term sheet, a document that outlines the renovations and where the\u00a0money will come from, for the Phillies spring training facility.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
The Philadelphia Phillies have called Clearwater their spring training home since 1947
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The team is asking Clearwater, Pinellas County and the State of Florida for $135 million to renovate their facility
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Clearwater and Pinellas elected officials will vote on the project’s term sheet next week
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Even if approved, the project still has many hurdles to pass before work begins<\/p>\n
The Phillies want $20 million from the state, $30 million from Clearwater, and they want Pinellas\u00a0County to put up as much as $85 million for the renovation. They\u2019re big numbers, but some nearby business owners say they see the value in their bottom line.<\/p>\n
When the Phillies come to town, Eddie Adams, owner of Loaded, notices.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a tremendous increase in our out-of-town customers clientele. We see a lot of visitors come specifically for the Phillies,\u201d said Adams.<\/p>\n
The Drew Street specialty potato shop owner says he sees about 60% more customers on Phillies spring training days. They play less than two miles away.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also see a lot of the other teams that they\u2019re playing, their visitors come here as well,\u201d Adams said.<\/p>\n
That sentiment is echoed in data presented by the Phillies to Clearwater and Pinellas County elected officials.<\/p>\n
This season, fans from Philadelphia have spent more on local hotels than any other metro in the country. The Phillies say their spring training attendance numbers are at top of\u00a0Major League Baseball, rivaling the Yankees and Red Sox.<\/p>\n
Those numbers have translated to customers for bagel shop owner Cathy Morris.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re all dressed in their Phillies shirts, so you can tell right away what they\u2019re here for,\u201d said Morris.<\/p>\n
Next week, officials in Clearwater and Pinellas County will vote on the 27-page term sheet, which outlines the $205 million dollar redevelopment and improvement to the home of Phillies spring training.<\/p>\n
While the term sheet doesn\u2019t authorize the spending, it serves as a blueprint of sorts for what will be done and how it will be paid for\u00a0.<\/p>\n
The multi-year project would bring a new video board and field lights, a larger concourse and expanded concessions, plus new seats, new suites and new restrooms, just to name a few.<\/p>\n
The team says they\u2019d cover any cost overruns.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a lot of money that they\u2019re putting out. So, I\u2019m going to have to say, \u2018We\u2019ll see, over time,\u2019 and hopefully it is beneficial to all surrounding areas and the other businesses in the area,\u201d Adams said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMakes me feel like we\u2019ll get more and more people to our community,\u201d said Morris.<\/p>\n
If the project continues as written, the Phillies would remain in Clearwater until 2047, their 100th year.<\/p>\n
Clearwater City Council members will discuss the term sheet Monday and voting on it Thursday.<\/p>\n
Pinellas County Commissioners will hold their vote on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Even if it gets approved by both bodies, it still has to be actually funded, permitted and approved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEARWATER, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Next week, both the city of Clearwater and Pinellas County officials will vote on the final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2397],"tags":[75186,563,556,85886,5,4,169,144,25,4216,40,8602,185,317,295,1542,85887],"class_list":["post-678027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia-phillies","tag-andy-cole","tag-app-professional-sports","tag-app-sports","tag-app-watchdog-investigations","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-news","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-philadelphiaphillies","tag-phillies","tag-pinellas-county","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-tampa","tag-vod","tag-watchdog"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116423008242796589","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}