There was once a time when Major League Baseball was a part of Plant City, by way of the Cincinnati Reds. Although those days are long gone, there’s a chance that the Bigs could be back in Plant City Stadium.
If everything goes as Don Porter and the International Softball Federation hopes they could, then MLB exhibition games — and the long-proposed ISF Hall of Fame Museum — may become realities in the future.
“The main thing is to bring people here to the community, whether to see the Hall of Fame Museum or go to the events, or both,” Porter says.
The ISF has had the support of MLB for several years now, partly through the federation’s ties with the World Baseball Softball Confederation, and also the support of softball equipment manufacturers Easton and Mizuno. Porter has plans to make a full presentation to the city, the county and the Greater Plant City Chamber of Commerce soon, with preliminary talks now out of the way.
“Among of the original projects that was proposed to us, when the offer was made by the city and county to locate here, was that this include the Hall of Fame Museum and the Wheelhouse — the structure inside the four-field complex,” Porter says. “The problem was, there wasn’t enough funding left once the renovation was completed here, so we had to let it go at that point. Had we stayed in the Olympics after 2008, we probably would have had the funding to get most of that done by now. But, of course, that didn’t work out.”
There is a chance that softball can get back into the Olympics in time for Tokyo 2020, but that decision won’t come until December. So, until then, the ISF will have to plan to do a lot of its own fundraising.
The tricky part is coming up with events that pull in revenue — there are a number of tournaments that come through the area each year, but they don’t pull in much money. Getting fans to come to games and pay for seating, seems to be the surest way to pull in the needed funds, and making it work will require something bigger than these tournaments.
It is possible for MLB to return to Plant City for some exhibition games. The stadium itself is still serviceable, even if it’s not exactly up-to-date. With several teams that regularly play in the Tampa Bay area — the Rays, the New York Yankees, the Detroit Tigers and the Toronto Blue Jays — it wouldn’t be a stretch to have them drive out to Plant City. And, the league itself is about to be in the right mind set to make such decisions: Longtime Commissioner Bud Selig will retire at the end of this season.
If everything works out, it could be a good thing for both the ISF and the city itself. For Porter, it would mean finally seeing one of the ISF’s earliest Plant City projects come to life.
“We’d like to fulfill what we started here,” Porter says.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.