LECOM Park, spring training home of the Pittsburgh Pirates in Bradenton, Fla. Courtesy, TripAdvisor
Training camps for the “boys of summer” are back as pitchers and catchers began reporting late last month to Major League Baseball (MLB) spring training sites in Florida and inter-team play is now fully underway.
If the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Super Bowl didn’t bring enough signs of a return to normalcy, many are hoping that we’ll be back in full normalcy by the end of baseball season in the fall. Pandemic rules and restrictions, however, will keep spring training from reaching that standard of normalcy, free of COVID-19 mentions, just yet though.
The usual 15 MLB teams are in place across 12 Florida cities. While the games will be open to the public, most ballparks are limiting fan capacity to 20-25%. The traditional vantage of meandering through the MLB complexes to view other fields will not be allowed. And rosters have been scaled down to 75 players with most minor league players not checking in until the big league players move north in April.
Spring training is big business in Florida. In normal times, it usually draws 1.5 million fans to the state. According to Downs & St. Germain Research, the 2018 spring training season delivered $687.1 million in sales to state businesses, including $584 million in direct spending by ”Grapefruit League tourists,” and created 7,152 jobs that paid $253.5 million in wages.
We’re so happy this Florida tradition continues as these teams bring much needed inspiration and economic rejuvenation this year to a Sunshine State that’s toughed out the worst of it yet. Floridians have been resilient thus far, and what better way to celebrate health and recovery than with spring training tradition!
See you on the road,
Lisa
LMA Newsletter of 3-15-21
