Baltimore Orioles Alan Rifkin and representatives from Lee County met to discuss the possibility of the Birds moving to City of Palms Park once the Red Sox depart for a new facility.

For the Orioles, it's the latest stop of their tour of Florida, as the team looks for a home to replace Fort Lauderdale Stadium. So far, the Orioles have come up short for a replacement stadium in Fort Lauderdale (too expensive), Sarasota (city wouldn't build a new ballpark, and the Orioles weren't interested in playing in a renovated Ed Smith Stadium), Orlando (discussions never went past the howdy-do phase) and Vero Beach (where dithering by the O's led the city and Indian River County to withdraw their offer of $13 million for a Dodgertown renovation). And don't forget the feelers sent out by Indian casinos looking to build new ballparks in Phoenix.

Lee County is offering the use of City of Palms Park once the Red Sox move to new spring digs, perhaps as soon as 2012. A new Boston spring facilty isn't a done deal at the moment, but plans are proceeding for a new suburban ballpark and training complex. Once the Red Sox move, City of Palm Park -- a perfectly functional facility -- would be available.

Not that there would be some risks for the Orioles. The actual training facility is a few miles from the ballpark, a situation the Red Sox deplored. (Then again, the Orioles minor leaguers train in Sarasota, so reducing the gap to a few miles may be a plus.) Baltimore's presence would put three spring teams in Fort Myers (the Twins also train there) and four in the general area (the Rays train in nearby Port Charlotte), and some question whether the area can support four teams. Plus, with the presence of the Fort Myers Miracle and Charlotte Stone Crabs in the Florida State League, there's little chance the Orioles could receive permission to run their own FSL team -- something the team was exploring last year.

Despite the rejection of Sarasota's offer to renovate Ed Smith Stadium, the Orioles never totally closed the door on a Sarasota move, and local officials tell us the offer still stands. We're guessing the debate right now for the Orioles is whether they can live with a renovated Ed Smith Stadium as soon as 2010 and have a pretty decent market to themselves, or potentially move to a decent ballpark and share a pretty decent market with the Red Sox and Twins.

Lee County officials sound optimistic about landing the Orioles. Then again, Indian River County and Sarasota County officials were at various times optimistic about landing the Orioles.

More from the Fort Myers News-Press.

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