While spending taxpayer dollars on sports stadiums never comes without controversy, it's a safe bet Sarasota County Commissioners come through with $22.1 million in revenue to ensure the Atlanta Braves move spring training here. The county has the luxury of spending the least controversial funding source around: out-of-towners’ cash. Nothing proves quite so easy to expend for elected officials than money their own constituents never had to pay. Relying completely on tourist development taxes means commissioners can wither some scrutiny but that no voters will feel a pinch from building a stadium in West Villages.

That’s why as this game plays out, the critical calls may happen instead in North Port. While a City Commission discussion there this week ended with every elected official wearing a Braves jersey, it’s noteworthy the city, while responsible for just $4 million to $5 million in this deal, will seeking out funding that could be used on North Port citizen services rather than a facility for professional athletes who swing through town a couple months each year. It’s no coincidence the most important items on North Port’s “wish list” for coming negotiations don’t involve dollars but a public sense of ownership.

Mayor Linda Yates, whose political reputation has always been more spendthrift watchdog more corporate booster, made clear her chief concern will be “public access.”

Voters in North Port start out upset at long unrest around Warm Mineral Springs and that more tourism dollars don’t already get spent promoting Sarasota County’s most populous city. But the rabble aren’t unreasonable. North Port skews younger than most cities in the region but boasts fewer parks and recreation amenities than its neighbors. Census data shows 24.2 percent of North Port’s population is under age 18, compared to 16.8 percent in Sarasota, 6.1 percent in Venice and 2.9 percent in Longboat Key. Guess which of these communities has the worst access to parks and sporting facilities? And while Sarasotans with high school children can send kids to Booker, Riverview or Sarasota high schools—never mind Suncoast Polytechnical—North Port remains home to one high school.

That’s probably why Yates acted surprised when fancy color renderings put on display at a County Commission hearing Thursday didn’t get the same level of play at North Port City Hall. Drawings by Fawley-Bryant Architects show space at a proposed Braves facility for six practice fields and three diamond in addition to the main stadium, as well as room for six soccer fields, half of those in an area usable for grass parking during Braves games.

It would take the city many years and millions of dollars to create the sort of sports amenities the Braves could construct before Spring 2019.  Putting the city on the hook for $300,000 annually for 30 years would be a bargain for the town commission—so long as local kids sometimes get to play ball here as well.

If leadership with the Braves organization wants a streamlined discussion in the next few months, they should take heed and make public access when the Braves aren’t playing a central part of any contract. If this deal looks like one that only benefits those with a 404 area code, talks will turn choppy, and not the type of chop with which Braves fans will be able to chant along. Turning territorial could change the tenor of talks from a potential win-win into a multi-million-dollar misstep.

Jacob Ogles is contributing senior editor for SRQ Media Group.