The baseball team is in exclusive negotiations with the county and the City of North Port.

NORTH PORT — The Atlanta Braves formally plan to move the team's spring training home to North Port in 2019, the team and Sarasota County announced Tuesday afternoon.

The announcement set the stage for final negotiations this spring on a contract to bring the Major League Baseball team to a new complex in the West Villages district just south of West Villages Parkway and U.S. 41, near the State College of Florida campus in North Port.

Revised plans for the project show a $75 million to $80 million complex on about 70 acres, including a 6,500-seat stadium, team clubhouse, training facilities, a half-dozen practice baseball fields, six multi-use fields and space for the team's sports medicine academy.

The complex is envisioned to become the heart of a planned "town center" commercial and residential district that will create opportunities for the college and nearby medical practices to partner with the team and its affiliates, officials said.

"We appreciate the patience of all parties during this process," said Braves Chairman and CEO Terry McGuirk, who has led the team's negotiations with local officials over the past year.

"This is the perfect location for our team and we couldn't be more excited to be part of Sarasota County and West Villages."

Negotiations

The announcement that the team is in exclusive negotiations with Sarasota County and the city of North Port also squelches lingering speculation that the Braves might still be considering other Florida sites, such as Palm Beach or Collier counties.

McGuirk and Braves Vice Chairman John Schuerholz plan to update both the county and North Port commissions in person at both boards' regularly scheduled meetings next Tuesday.

"There's still a lot of work to do to finalize the terms, agreements and approvals necessary, but this announcement is a major step forward in the efforts to bring the Braves to our area," County Administrator Tom Harmer said. "Continuing to expand sports tourism is high on the county's list, and the opportunity to bring a major sports anchor to the city of North Port could have a significant impact in south county."

The Braves have been searching for a new home for spring training for almost two years as the team nears the end of its lease at Disney's Wide World of Sports in Orlando, where it has trained since 1997.

Sarasota County commissioners authorized their staff to negotiate with the team last March, and administrators and West Villages staff have been working with the team to develop conceptual plans ever since.

But discussions in Sarasota have been hot and cold as the team publicly considered other potential sites in Collier and Palm Beach counties. Last month, the Collier County Commission voted for a second time against opening negotiations for a complex in greater Naples, where Schuerholz has a home, and team officials reportedly met with business leaders in the Palm Beach area, where the team trained for decades before heading to Orlando.

Throughout those turns, local leaders remained cautiously optimistic behind the scenes and Tuesday's announcement removed any doubts those previous flirtations had raised, said West Villages General Manager Marty Black, who has led the development's efforts to court and plan the facility.

"It's not been easy, but the Braves are showing they're committed to investing in this community and that's really exciting," Black said.

West Villages is taking shape on 11,000 acres and will eventually include 20,000 residences and 3 million square feet of commercial space.

Latest plans

As the expansive West Villages development continues to emerge along U.S. 41 in North Port on the Thomas Ranch, the site of the would-be training complex remains a pasture. With cows roaming a few yards away, Black stood off a dirt road cutting through the area and pointed out to reporters where each of the components of the new complex would eventually be built.

The stadium itself would sit on the north end of the tract, just south of the site of a planned new elementary and middle school campus.

A public plaza area would line West Villages Parkway and could be used as a special event space when the team it not in town, Black said. Practice fields and multi-use fields would cover the southern and eastern portions of the 70 to 75 acres.

Those multi-use fields could both be used as grass parking to expand capacity during spring training and as public fields for the new schools or new tournaments, he said.

The team's sports medicine, fitness and physical therapy academy also will have a new home on the site, which officials hope to integrate with programs at the nearby college campus and with area physicians, Black said. County leaders have long hoped attracting the team could spark a sports medicine hub in the West Villages area.

"It's about more than baseball," Black said. "It's about creating a community and creating real careers and jobs."

The Braves announced in September that the team will move its Class A minor league affiliate to Kissimmee. Although Black stopped short of saying the team intends to try to bring the affiliate to a possible North Port site, he noted that agreement in Kissimmee is through 2020 — just a year after the West Villages would open.

Financing

With concept plans for the complex itself well underway, financing for the project remains a key focus of the negotiations. County leaders have said they plan to propose roughly $22 million in tourism development tax dollars, just under the cap that would require the contribution to be approved by a voter referendum.

Team executives and Black plan to ask North Port leaders for $4 to $5 million toward the plan, which could cost about $300,000 per year over the life of an agreement, Black said.

The West Villages district will donate the acreage for the project, valued at about $7 million to $9 million, and will construct the necessary road, water and sewer infrastructure, Black said.

The remainder would be paid for by the team's lease and a $20 million state grant offered for communities building spring training facilities. However, state lawmakers are expected to at least consider a plan that could gut those incentives during the legislative session this spring, so officials aim to submit their application as soon as possible.

"We're trying to get out now and ask for those funds," Black said. "Obviously the project has to have that (grant), and the team knows that and the county knows that ... You never know what politicians may end up doing."

What's next

Next week, McGuirk and Schuerholz, the Braves executives, will be making their first formal public appearances locally since negotiations began. They and Black will ask the North Port City Commission to formally authorize city staff to negotiate with the team over the agreement details, as county officials did early last year.

The city will play an important role in helping finalize the terms and agreements, as well as overseeing any necessary regulatory approvals to advance the project, North Port City Manager Jonathan Lewis said.

"The city of North Port is excited about the possibility of spring training and everything else a new facility would bring to our area," Lewis said. "A world-class professional baseball organization calling North Port home can only help to put our area on the map."

McGuirk and Schuerholz also will present the latest update to the County Commission at its meeting in downtown Sarasota, although no vote of the county is needed at this time, officials said.

Once a final agreement is drafted among the staffs and the team, it must be presented for several county and city votes before the move to North Port can be considered final.

A news release from the county suggested such an agreement could be presented within "several months," but Black declined to say whether there are any specific deadlines.