Cocoa Expo Sports Center Cancels Its 2013 Spring Training Program
By SpaceCoastDaily // January 16, 2013
BREVARD COUNTY • COCOA, FLORIDA – The Cocoa Expo Sports Center has cancelled its 2013 spring training program for college and high school teams, according to Richard Miller, spokesman for Cocoa Expo.
Miller declined to comment on the reasons why the Cocoa Expo abruptly cancelled its program right before the spring training season, which would have begun next month.
According to the Cocoa Expo website homepage, CocoaExpo.com, the company says they have a professional stadium with a 40-foot video scoreboard, 13 baseball fields, 16 bull pens, 15 batting cages and 30,000 square feet of indoor training facilities with seven video simulated pitching machines sound, a 100,000 square foot gymnasium with 11 NFHS regulation hardwood basketball courts, 14 hardwood volleyball courts and a waterpark – all to be completed by January 2013.
The Cocoa Expo Sports Center was originally built in 1964 by the city of Cocoa as the spring training home for Major League Baseball’s Houston Astros (then the Colt 45’s).
The proposed $40 million upgrade of the Cocoa Expo facility has been plagued by zoning and permit restrictions since it began in the summer of 2011, and an investigation was launched last July by the water management district following complaints that workers at the facility destroyed wetlands by filling them in.
The proposed $40 million upgrade of the Cocoa Expo facility has been plagued by zoning and permit restrictions since it began in the summer of 2011, and an investigation was launched last July by the water management district following complaints that workers at the facility destroyed wetlands by filling them in.
Last August the Brevard County Commission approved a series of zoning changes 4-1 as requested by Cocoa Expo owner Jeff Unnerstall, who is from Kissimmee, to help speed construction. Proposed construction at the Cocoa Expo, located on approximately 48 acres at 500 Friday Road, includes redeveloping a multi-purpose gym at the facility, upgrading baseball fields, creation of parking lots and renovating a dormitory.
Commissioner Chuck Nelson cast the lone dissenting vote for the zoning changes, saying he thought there were too many loose ends to tie up regarding drainage, parking and traffic concerns.
Last October, county fire crews responded to a 3-alarm fire of burning construction material at Cocoa Expo.
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