Port Charlotte, Fla., Braces for Loss of Texas Rangers' Spring Training Camp.

Publication: The Dallas Morning News (Dallas, Texas) (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News)

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COPYRIGHT 2001 The Dallas Morning News

Byline: Richard Alm

Feb. 27--PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla.--After 15 years, this Gulf Coast community of 150,000 is preparing for life without spring training and the Texas Rangers.

And no one will miss them more than John Grother.

A baseball fan, he owns the Days Inn where the Rangers have stayed for more than a decade and Johnny's Diner & Pub, where the team eats.

"They spend $250,000 a year with us," Mr. Grother said. "It's going to be a big blow for us. The impact is obvious for me, but it's going to be a lot more than people realize for the area as a whole."

Since 1987, the Rangers have trained for six or seven weeks every spring in Port Charlotte, a city 90 miles south of Tampa. Next year -- or the year after at the latest -- the franchise will head west to a $45 million complex it will share with the Kansas City Royals in Surprise, Ariz.

For baseball fans, spring training evokes green fields and eternal hope. For 20 Florida cities -- and a half-dozen others in Arizona -- it's more than that -- a thriving business that's lost when teams strike out for greener pastures.

The Florida Sports Foundation, a state-sponsored marketing group, figures host communities reap gains of $20 million to $25 million. Charlotte County, its economy driven by tourism and retirement havens, hasn't conducted its own economic impact studies,...

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