2010 Spring Training

by Graham Knight

The Reds' move to Goodyear in 2010 evened up the amount of teams training in Arizona and Florida at 15 apiece.

For the first time in spring training history, 2010 saw as many teams training in Arizona as in Florida. The Cincinnati Reds became the 15th member of the Cactus League when they moved from Sarasota, FL to Goodyear, AZ, where they played their first game on March 5. The Reds' departure from the Grapefruit League left just 15 teams conducting spring training in Florida, the fewest amount of teams to train in the Sunshine State since 1965, when "only" 15 of 20 teams prepared for the regular season there.

With parity between the Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues finally achieved, the two spring training circuits will now generally host an equal number of exhibition games. In 2010, there were a collective 432 games played in 25 ballparks, which combined to draw 2,873,880 fans.

In the Cactus League, 219 games were played by 15 teams in 11 ballparks. Total attendance was 1,470,722, an average of 6,716 per game. Seven games were rained out, one of which was made up (Giants at Royals). The league's single-game attendance record, which had stood at 13,366 for six years, was broken six times in ten days. Just as before, the record still belongs to the Peoria Sports Complex for a Cubs-Mariners game but the mark is now 13,629, which was reached on March 28.

In the Grapefruit League, 213 games were played by 15 teams in 14 ballparks. Total attendance was 1,403,158, an average of 6,588 per game. Nineteen games were rained out, one of which was made up (Red Sox at Cardinals). Additionally, another 33,786 paid to watch eight games that were played by Major League clubs against collegiate or minor league all-star teams.

The average attendance for a spring training game in 2010 was 6,653, which was up 619 fans per game from 2009, when 536 games drew a total of 3,234,439 fans to Cactus and Grapefruit League ballparks.

No new ballparks opened in 2010, although one was abandoned as the Baltimore Orioles left Fort Lauderdale Stadium, where they had trained since 1996, and moved to Sarasota's Ed Smith Stadium, which was available when the Reds left town following the 2009 season. Fort Lauderdale became the fourth Florida city in two years to lose its team after St. Petersburg, Vero Beach and Winter Haven were all abandoned in 2009.

2010 Attendance Rankings

(home games only, ranked by per game average)

Grapefruit League	City	Average	Total
1. Yankees 2. Phillies 3. Twins 4. Braves 5. Red Sox 6. Tigers 7. Cardinals 8. Orioles 9. Rays 10. Mets 11. Blue Jays 12. Marlins 13. Pirates 14. Nationals 15. Astros	Tampa Clearwater Fort Myers Orlando Fort Myers Lakeland Jupiter Sarasota Port Charlotte Port St. Lucie Dunedin Jupiter Bradenton Viera Kissimmee	10,574 9,102 8,055 7,557 7,411 7,198 6,922 6,814 6,060 4,838 4,777 4,678 4,670 4,538 3,986	158,611 136,523 104,712 105,795 133,393 115,170 96,910 102,207 84,838 87,091 52,550 74,853 70,053 54,454 59,784

Cactus League	City	Average	Total
1. Cubs 2. Giants 3. Dodgers 4. Mariners 5. Angels 6. Diamondbacks 7. Rangers 8. White Sox 9. A's 10. Padres 11. Brewers 12. Royals 13. Rockies 14. Indians 15. Reds	Mesa Scottsdale Glendale Peoria Tempe Tucson Surprise Glendale Phoenix Peoria Phoenix Surprise Tucson Goodyear Goodyear	10,892 10,388 8,893 8,597 6,940 6,647 6,465 6,280 5,966 5,691 5,310 5,283 5,243 4,374 4,170	152,493 155,819 124,502 120,358 111,038 99,698 90,513 81,634 89,493 79,671 79,651 79,249 78,638 61,240 66,725

2010 Grapefruit League Standings

W L GB

Rays 20 8 -

Tigers 18 12 3

Braves 17 12 3½

Phillies 15 12 4½

Red Sox 17 14 4½

Twins 16 14 5

Cardinals 15 14 5½

Marlins 14 14 6

Blue Jays 12 13 6½

Mets 14 16 7

Astros 13 15 7

Yankees 13 15 7

Orioles 12 17 8½

Nationals 10 20 11

Pirates 7 21 13

2010 Cactus League Standings

W L GB

Giants 23 12 -

Indians 19 9 ½

Padres 18 10 1½

Cubs 18 12 2½

Rockies 17 13 3½

Brewers 16 14 4½

Royals 14 13 5

D-backs 15 17 6½

Angels 13 15 6½

White Sox 12 16 7½

Reds 12 16 7½

A's 12 17 8

Mariners 12 18 8½

Dodgers 11 17 8½

Rangers 10 19 10

Graham Knight has been to spring training in Florida 11 times and has made 4 visits to Arizona for the same purpose. In 2009, he completed the hard to complete task of seeing a game in each of the 26 spring training ballparks in use that year by Cactus and Grapefruit League teams. He has seen multiple games in every current spring training ballpark and has visited the practice complexes used by each team. In addition to the ballpark guides he has written for this Web site, Knight has published the Arizona Spring Training Ballpark Guide since 2010 and plans to release the Florida version in time for the 2012 season.