[glynnjamin]

At the end of the day, Florida really cannot compete with Arizona. They just can't. It might be nice for teams along the eastern seaboard and for the the Florida teams because it is closer to their home fans...but the reality is that Phoenix is able to host 15 teams within 20 miles of each other. As far as I know, only the Sox & Twins, and Marlins & Cardinals have that sort of advantage in Florida because they share complexes. You can ask any baseball player who has been to both and they will tell you that being able to come to Phoenix, rent a house for a month, and drive themselves to every game (as opposed to riding a bus) is 100 times better. They will also tell you that it is drier here (this year not withstanding) and that the warm days aren't as humid. Not only that but we have better facilities, better fields, and better attendance per team. Florida can pretend that they can compete but the reality is that teams like Detroit, Houston, St Louis, and Minnesota will all start looking at coming here in the future.

I guess the unfortunate reality of that is that we are going to need a lot more money to keep all of these stadiums up to date. Milwaukee is already looking to leave. The Mariners and Padres stadium is starting to show its age and will need renovation. A few years down the road when we need to renovate all of these ballparks, we're going to need to get the money from somewhere. Maybe taxing the tickets and the games isn't such a bad idea...but having the money go to the Cubs alone is just outrageous.