The city of Clearwater is making room for a professional soccer team to start spring training there.
Mayor George Cretekos has entered into a tentative agreement with Major League Soccer's Philadelphia Union to hold spring training at the Joe DiMaggio Sports Complex.
Since Clearwater is already the spring-training home for the Philadelphia Phillies, he says big things could come out of this.
"When we get the Union here, then if we can get some other teams to look at Pinellas County as a spring training, pre-season venue, then we have another opportunity to market the area in different communities," Cretekos said. "So it could be the start of something big."
The city will be spending about $100,000 to upgrade the field to meet Major League Soccer specifications.
Nathan Pandy's high school soccer team practices on those same fields, and he's looking forward to the pro team coming on board.
"A lot of people come out and watch whenever professional baseball teams come and do spring training here, which is a popular place," he said. "But if a soccer team came down here, it would take some time, but people would get really interested the major leagues of soccer."
The city council is set to vote on the agreement on Thursday. If approved the Union would start spring training in Clearwater this February.