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VERO BEACH -- Unable after eight months to nail down the right to use Dodgertown as part of its official name, Minor League Baseball is renaming the iconic facility "Vero Beach Sports Village."

The new name will allow MiLB, which owns the 65-acre complex, to market the former Dodgertown facility with its vision of a multi-season, multi-sports operation.

However, the owners are still hoping to keep Dodgertown as part of its name somewhere down the road.

"Moving forward, we hope to call it the 'Vero Beach Sports Village at Dodgertown,'" Minor League Baseball President Pat O'Conner told Benjamin Hill of MLB.com. "We'd like to honor the Dodgers' legacy, because there are 60 years of history here."

When that might happen is an open question. Dodger owners Frank and Jamie McCourt are going through a bitter divorce in which ownership of the team is a subject of dispute and until that matter is settled the local naming rights negotiations have been put on hold.

"Right now, marketing is paramount," O'Conner said. "Without a name, we couldn't get on the internet or create collateral materials such as sales brochures."

Currently the site is hosting RussMatt college and high school baseball tournaments through early April and has hosted umpiring schools, a lacrosse tournament and the Washington Freedom women's professional soccer team.

“Our early users and tenants have given it rave reviews," O'Conner said. "We look forward to continuing to serve professional and amateur sports in the years to come."

The name Dodgertown first took hold in the 1940s when the team began spring training in Vero Beach. The team officially took the name with them when the left for Arizona in 2008.

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Really, they should have at least incorporated the word "town" into the new name as in -vero beach sports town.-gives it both scale and a historical background

ianfb , March 19, 2010

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