Baseball’s future in Orlando is extremely uncertain as March comes to a close. And it went out in one area with something of a whimper.
Rain on Saturday canceled the final game for the Houston Astros at Osceola County Stadium as the team moves south to West Palm Beach, leaving Orlando and the Central Florida area (the Washington Nationals will move from Viera near Melbourne next year) with just one team remaining. And the Atlanta Braves may move their spring training before next season and build their own facility in St. Petersburg. Next year is the final year of their lease with Disney.
Orlando, already the largest media market in the United States without a full-time professional baseball team, has already become a baseball desert.
The Astros are leaving Kissimmee after moving there for spring training in 1985. Their decision to move is multi-faceted. One is an upgrade in facilities with the new facility they are building in Palm Beach County (the Braves reportedly are interested in building a similar facility in St. Petersburg) and two is the lack of other teams in Central Florida.
The well was already pretty dry but with the Astros and Nationals moving out only the Detroit Tigers in Lakeland are within an hour’s drive for teams shuttling around the state for games. There are no easy trips and no easy games to schedule.
And it is not like Orlando is a wellspring for baseball anyway.
The Astros were 29th out of 30 teams in attendance in 2015 Spring Training, averaging 4,729 fans per game, actually an increase over their 2014 numbers.
The Astros played a split squad game in Mexico City and in Lakeland against the Tigers on Sunday. They have one more game in Florida before heading back to Texas to prepare for this weekend’s Opening Day festivities.
Their final home game was indeed rained out against the Miami Marlins, limiting the pomp and circumstance of that final game. Despite the rainout, fans who attended the game did receive a commemorative ticket celebrating the 30 years the Astros spent at Osceola County Stadium. The team still went through with a fireworks display for the Saturday evening game and Spring Training finale.
And with that baseball left Kissimmee and Orlando came closer to losing baseball.
