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Boston Red Sox Spring Training Decision

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"Whew, I$\text{'}$m glad the town hall meeting is over. The audience was hostile!" Tom Bourbon commented as he was escorted by a police officer to his car in the high school parking lot. The officer replied. "There were over $1,000$ people in the gymnasium, sir, and they were in an uproar. Let's get you out of here safely."

Tom and the other City Council members had just finished a town hall meeting open to the public to discuss four alternative locations for a new $$80$ million baseball stadium in Lee County, Florida. The City Council originally evaluated $16$ sites and had arrived at the final four locations. The new $10,000-$seat ballpark also includes practice fields, batting cages, and weight rooms. The stadium facility design and layout is to mimic the regular season Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. However, the new park planned on "going green" by reducing energy consumption, allocating a carpooling parking lot close to the stadium to reduce patron traffic congestion and transportation costs and fuel use, and changing some of its work practices.

The five board members of City Council have to make a location decision in three weeks if they are to meet the contractual requirements of previous agreements. Once the stadium for spring training was complete, the Red Sox would sign a $30-$year lease. Two economic impact studies indicated the stadium would generate $$25$ to $$40$ million annually to the local economy and support thousands of jobs in airports, hotels, restaurants, and retail stores.

The four possible locations were described as follows:

Site A includes $241$ acres and is big enough to build a sports village; it is located next to a shopping mall $($denoted as $1$ in Exhibit $6\mathrm{.}12)$ and within $4$ miles of Florida Gulf Coast University and an $8,000-$seat indoor arena for events such as hockey and basketball games in a second shopping mall $($denoted as $2$ in Exhibit $6\mathrm{.}12).$ The land cost to the City Council is $$18$ million.

Site B includes $209$ acres and is located between the two shopping malls $1$ and $2.$ The site is about $2$ miles from Florida Gulf Coast University. The land cost to the City Council is $$22$ million.

Site C includes $2,000$ acres of wetlands and habitat for animals. The area is within $3$ miles of shopping mall $2$ and Florida Gulf Coast University. The developer planned to donate $100$ acres to the city, so the stadium land cost is free. The developer also offered to place $20$ acres in a nature preserve for every acre that is developed for commercial purposes.