Co-owner of former Manatees wants to bring minor-league baseball team back to Brevard – Florida Today
The co-owner of the former Brevard County Manatees minor league baseball team — which moved to Kissimmee in 2017 — now wants to return it to the Space Coast, saying the move out of Viera was a big mistake.
But David Freeman, a co-owner of the team that’s now known as the Florida Fire Frogs, is having trouble finding a stadium in Brevard County where the Class A Florida State League team can play.
The Brevard County Manatees’ former home in Viera, the former Space Coast Stadium, is not available. The facility now is operated by the U.S. Specialty Sports Association as a venue for youth and other amateur baseball and softball tournaments. USSSA renamed the complex the USSSA Space Coast Complex.
USSSA’s tournament schedule in Viera is so packed, it could not handle a 70-game home schedule for a Florida State League team — a schedule that runs from early April to early September.
Freeman is working with former Brevard County Commissioner Robin Fisher to explore the potential of moving the Fire Frogs to the former Cocoa Expo Sports Center, which now goes by the name Coastal Florida Sports Park.
But there are hurdles with that option as well, Fisher said, not the least of which is various financial issues between the owners of the sports complex and its lenders that hold mortgages on the property.
The Brevard County Manatees played at Space Coast Stadium through 2016. The team left Viera for Osceola County Stadium in Kissimmee, where it played in 2017, 2018 and 2019, under the name of the Florida Fire Frogs, as an affiliate of major league baseball’s Atlanta Braves.
But the Fire Frogs’ ownership reached an agreement to move out of Osceola County Stadium after the 2019 season, and has not announced where it will play in 2020.
More: Manatees become ‘Fire Frogs’ in Kissimmee
More: Viera-based USSSA Pride depart from pro softball league
The latest plan for Osceola County Stadium is for it to become the home for the Orlando City B soccer team, with the surrounding complex serving as the official training grounds of Major League Soccer’s Orlando City Soccer Club, Orlando City B and the Orlando City Development Academy.
Freeman said the Fire Frogs are working on a temporary deal for another stadium to play at in 2020. But it would like to move to the Cocoa Expo Sports Center/Coastal Florida Sports Park site as early as 2021, “if all the pieces fall in place.”
“We think Brevard County is a significantly better market than Osceola County,” Freeman said. “Our goal is a long-term home in Brevard County.”
According to data complied by the Florida State League, the Manatees had an average home game attendance of 1,308 in 2016, its last year at Space Coast Stadium. That figure steadily dropped after the team moved to Kissimmee, falling to 1,082 per home game in 2017; 600 in 2018; and 327 in 2019.
The 2019 average attendance for the Fire Frogs was the second-lowest in the 12-team Florida State League, ahead of only the Dunedin Blue Jays, which had an average attendance of 203. The other 10 teams in the Florida State League had average home attendance ranging between 2,688 and 819 in 2019.
One issue with the Kissimmee location that holds down attendance may be that many residents in that community work in the service industry, including at the Orlando-area theme parks, and might still be at work when the Fire Frogs games began. Many of the games had a 6 p.m. start time in 2019, and some started at noon.
Fisher believes the Coastal Florida Sports Park site could be a solution for the Fire Frogs as early as 2021 — if negotiations over access to the venue work out.
J.C. Unnerstall, a principal in the company that operates the Coastal Florida Sports Park, said he has spoken in the past with representatives of the team, but added that “it’s kind of premature” to speculate on what might happen.
Unnerstall said “it would be good to get professional baseball back in Brevard County.”
Freeman said Florida State League officials have visited the 4,000-seat stadium, and are open to the team moving there, as long as upgrades are made.
“It’s a beautiful park,” Freeman said, although areas that need work to bring it up to professional baseball standards include the playing surface, lighting, clubhouse facilities, concessions equipment and group seating areas.
Freeman declined to speculate on how much those upgrades would cost or who would pay for them.
Freeman is chief executive officer of 36 Venture Capital in Nashville, Tennessee. He also is a part-owner of the Nashville Predators of the National Hockey League, as well as of the Jackson Generals, a Southern League baseball team in Tennessee that is a Double-A minor-league affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Cocoa Expo Sports Center/Coastal Florida Sports Park site — like the former Space Coast Stadium — previously was the home to both minor league baseball and major league spring training. It has been renovated and expanded in recent years.
Fisher sees potential from the Coastal Florida Sports Park site, which is just west of Interstate 95 and north of State Road 520, and just outside the Cocoa city limits. And not just for minor league baseball.
He said the facility could be expanded to add indoor facilities for basketball and volleyball tournaments and other competitions.
Fisher has had preliminary discussions with county officials about his efforts to bring professional baseball back to Brevard. Among those he has talked with are Space Coast Office of Tourism Executive Director Peter Cranis and County Commission Vice Chair Rita Pritchett, Fisher’s successor on the County Commission, whose District 1 includes the Coastal Florida Sports Park site.
Cranis subsequently briefed members of the Tourist Development Council’s Capital Facilities Committee. Cranis indicated that Fisher could be coming to that advisory board and to the Tourist Development Council in 2020 to present a proposal under which the county might help fund upgrades to the complex through a capital facilities grant.
Money for such a grant would come from Brevard County’s Tourist Development Tax on hotel rooms and other short-term rentals.
To get such a grant, the facility would have to have a demonstrated impact for bringing tourists to the region. That potential could be improved if an indoor basketball/volleyball arena is added to the complex to attract tournaments.
Additionally, the Coastal Florida Sports Park complex already has 10 other baseball fields on the site that have been used for tournaments.
Pritchett said she is interested in seeing whether Fisher’s proposal to bring professional baseball back to Brevard is feasible, as it would increase the use of the venue, rather than having times when it is “sitting idle.”
Dave Berman is government editor at FLORIDA TODAY.
Contact Berman at 321-242-3649
or dberman@floridatoday.com.
Twitter: @bydaveberman
Published 4:56 PM EST Dec 19, 2019
