city and the county agreed to buy back Dodgertown for $10 million,
plus $9 million for capital improvements. This would require
a 30-year county bond issue with a debt service of $29 million.
In the past, the O’Malley team had paid $300,000 in local taxes
and given $50,000 a year in donations to local charities.
With the chaos of the Fox management, a Los Angeles columnist
commented, “Dodger blue? The allure is gone, the aura dust, the
tradition a distant memory.” The team had a losing record in 1999.
MAJOR CHANGES
By 2003, Dodgertown looked different. An impressive two-story
clubhouse and administration building stretched across Holman
Stadium’s right field. Players could now leave the field without fan
contact, a factor that had been so much a part of the stadium.
But now Fox had had enough of baseball. Murdoch admitted
that he only bought the team in an attempt to obtain TV sports
rights in Los Angeles. There was only one bidder for the team,
Boston real estate developer Frank McCourt and his wife, Jamie.
They offered $420 million, but came up short. Fox provided
them financing. Under the ownership of the McCourts, the chaos
continued. Players were traded. Managers came
and went. The McCourts spent little time in Vero, a far cry from
the O’Malleys.
In 2007, the McCourts decided to move the Dodgers to Glendale,
a suburb of Phoenix. The team would share a $76 million
13,000-seat spring training stadium with the Chicago White Sox.
The Vero Beach minor league team departed as well, moving to
San Bernardino, California.
The McCourts were allowed to break their lease with the
county but had to pay off the bonds. They did, however, have an
option to repurchase the property. The city and county did not
want to lose ownership of Dodgertown, a property that could appreciate
and might attract another team. The McCourts escaped
with no penalty.
In 2008, the Dodgers left for a China tour in the middle of
spring training thus depriving the community of fully celebrating
the team’s 61 years in Vero Beach. In that final spring, Dodger
fans from all over the country flocked to Vero Beach to see the
hallowed Dodgertown before it closed. As local sports writer Ray
McNulty noted, “In time the Dodgers would become nothing
more than a fond memory, just as they are in Brooklyn.”
Tommy Lasorda at
the area around
home plate before
the start of the
spring training
game against the
Minnesota Twins.
EVENT ROSTER FULL
Dodgertown as such was no more, but Historic Dodgertown is
thriving. Major League Baseball owned the original Dodgertown
name but in a 2013 agreement the current name was allowed.
In 2009, Minor League Baseball leased the Dodgertown facility
to operate a multi-sport complex called the Vero Beach Sports
Village. Three years later Peter O’Malley, the former Dodger owner
with his family and partners, former Dodger pitchers Chan Ho
Park and Hideo Nomo, took over the management.
High Schools, colleges, pro football, foreign baseball teams and
other sports organizations keep the facility busy year-round providing
68 City of Vero Beach 1919-2019 VeroBeach100.org
a variety of sports training, tournaments and events. With
40,000 visitors and 1,100 teams plus corporate and community
activities, Historic Dodgertown provides a year-round economic
boost to Vero Beach.
The facility is a Florida Historical Landmark. The legacy of
Dodgertown lives on. F
Sources: The Rise and Fall of Dodgertown, University Press of Florida,
2008, by Rody Johnson. Historic Dodgertown 2017 Facility Guide
DODGERS
MARK DOLAN
Dodger Greg Kent signs a baseball for a fan before one of the team’s last spring
training games at Dodgertown in 2007.
/VeroBeach100.org