The stadium is quaint, even though it seats more than 7,000, and there are plenty of concession stands and bathrooms, and there is not a bad seat in the house, and every one of those seats is filled every game.

So, you ask, why would the Boston Red Sox want to leave City of Palms Park in Fort Myers?

The answers are many, beginning with not enough of those seats and ending with a city, in this case Sarasota, which could give the Red Sox organization everything it needs in a spring training site.

To start, the Red Sox are one of the few major league teams that can build a 10,000-plus-seat stadium and fill it for every home game. The idea of constructing a ballpark to not only rival Steinbrenner (formerly Legends) Field in Tampa, the spring home of the New York Yankees, but outdraw it on a daily basis is a huge incentive in the battle of one-upmanship between the two American League East foes.