Barricades christening the “future home of Mighty Banyans baseball” now surround a plot at the corner of University Parkway and U.S. 41, but one persistent critic, a former Sarasota Bradenton International Airport employee, is still ringing the alarm on the facility’s location.
As New College of Florida moves forward with its planned baseball facility in north Sarasota, potential use of land owned by the airport for it is still prompting criticism from a a vocal opponent who says the construction will restrict the airport’s future growth. He cites the Federal Aviation Administration’s rejection of a proposed land swap deal between the college and the airport last year.
A fence surrounds an open field that will become the new baseball field for the New College Mighty Banyans. The location at N. Tamiami Trail and University Parkway, was previously home to the Classic Car Museum, the second oldest continuously operated antique car museum in the nation.
Land deal that would’ve relinquished acreage to New College falls through
The land deal would’ve sold 30.8 acres that New College leases from the airport to the college for $11.5 million. The college has eyed the land for a future athletic facility since the installation of a new administration in 2023 that’s aimed to transform the college from a small liberal arts school to a hallmark of conservative education anchored by its athletics.
The land deal was all but signed and sealed before the FAA struck it down last April, noting that the airport would benefit more from retaining the land than from the college’s proposed lump sum.
“The FAA does not believe the proposal demonstrates a benefit to civil aviation or the national airspace system, other than providing for some operational income,” the FAA’s rejection letter said. “The FAA does not find New College to be a compatible land use with SRQ.”
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John Schussler, director of properties for the Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority from 2005 to 2018, agreed with the FAA’s decision. He’s has been a steady opponent of construction of the field on airport land, maintaining that a baseball field wouldn’t serve the airport’s interests, especially as both continue to grow.
Both parties are touting grand expansion plans. New College’s new administration has made its growth goals clear, with initiatives aimed at boosting enrollment and attracting student-athletes in high gear. The airport, meanwhile, is charging ahead with its own growth projects, with an overarching $200 million plan kicked off by the construction of the recently opened Concourse A.
If the college and the airport had remained steady, as they did for much of Schussler’s tenure, Schussler said the land use wouldn’t be an issue. But as both look toward the future, Schussler said the airport should use every inch of its roughly 1,100 acres to maximize the growth it continually courts.
“There’s the rub right there, the push between the two entities in rapid expansion mode,” Schussler said. “You cap the long-term usefulness of the Sarasota Bradenton airport by selling some land close to the terminal.”
Schussler cares little for where and how New College builds its baseball field, but he feels it shouldn’t be the airport’s problem.
“The airport’s the big dog, and New College is the tail,” Schussler said. “Lately, the tails been wagging the dog, and it shouldn’t be that way.”
Long-term lease between SRQ and New College proves complicated
The situation is made stickier by New College’s long agreement with the airport. A 99-year lease signed in 1957 puts the land in New College’s hands until 2056. It’s a deal that, today, wouldn’t make it past FAA discretion, but both parties are nonetheless locked in the agreement.
Sarasota Bradenton International Airport held a ribbon-cutting ceremony and reception in the new Concourse A on Tuesday afternoon Jan. 14, 2025.
SRQ officials were eager to untangle the airport from its lease, which they say shortchanges the airport because of its age. New College pays $108,072 on the 34.8 acres it rents from the airport. A staff report on the proposed land swap deal notes that the rent would total almost $1.3 million if written using modern standards.
The land swap deal, the airport said, would yield more than $55,000 in revenue more than the lease agreement would by 2056, funds that would aid in the airport’s long-term growth more than use of the land would.
“The proceeds of the sale to the College will also enable the SMAA (Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority) to fund much needed new infrastructure,” the staff report said, referring to the authority that governs the airport. “Without the sale, the woefully inadequate market revenue realized from the present Lease otherwise would run another 32 plus years.”
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SRQ President Rick Piccolo said the future baseball facility poses no threat to the airport and its growth. A New College softball field and outdoor volleyball pit already occupy airport land, a situation Piccolo said hasn’t posed problems in the 30 years he’s been with the airport.
Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport
And the airport’s long-term master plan, Piccolo said, doesn’t project construction in the airport’s southwest corner where the baseball field will be built.
“If there was a danger to the airport, I’d be the first to defend it,” Piccolo said. “It’s, in my mind, much ado about nothing.”
New College baseball facility construction plans still uncertain
Exactly much airport land the facility will use is uncertain. New College hasn’t released an official site plan for the facility, but rough concepts on its master plan plan indicate the outfield will encroach on airport-owned land adjacent to the main plot.
The barricaded area marked as the field’s primary location is a 3.7-acre tract at 5500 N. Tamiami Trail that New College owns. The Sarasota Classic Car Museum rented the land until New College terminated the lease, and the land is now cleared of the buildings that used to occupy it.
The average baseball field stretches across 4.5 acres, according to a guide from sports fencing and netting contractor Grand Slam Safety.
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An exact timeline on facility construction is also unclear, though the barricades around the site are the latest in a series of recent steps New College has taken. The college announced it will name the field the Beruff Family Field of Dreams after a $1 million donation from local developer Carlos Beruff in December, and it said an official construction plan will follow later this month.
Beruff has no outstanding ties to New College, but he serves on the Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority.
Opponents like Schussler have suggested the land swap deal and was politically motivated, with members of the airport authority placing their support behind the Gov. Ron Desantis-backed New College transformation. Piccolo, however maintains that members of the airport authority, New College’s administration and the state government weren’t in talks outside of official proceedings and that the deal was made in good faith.
“I tried to do something good, and I think this is a prime example of ‘no good deed goes unpunished,’” Piccolo said. “We thought this was a good deal for everybody.”
Contact Herald-Tribune Education Reporter Heather Bushman at hbushman@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @hmb_1013.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Part of New College baseball field could be on leased SRQ airport land
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