Spring Training Connection

Cactus League Teams
Arizona Diamondbacks
Chicago Cubs
Chicago White Sox
Cincinnati Reds
Cleveland Indians
Colorado Rockies
Kansas City Royals
Los Angeles Angels
Los Angeles Dodgers
Milwaukee Brewers
Oakland A's
San Diego Padres
San Francisco Giants
Seattle Mariners
Texas Rangers

Grapefruit League Teams
Atlanta Braves
Baltimore Orioles
Boston Red Sox
Detroit Tigers
Florida Marlins
Houston Astros
Minnesota Twins
New York Mets
New York Yankees
Philadelphia Phillies
Pittsburgh Pirates
St. Louis Cardinals
Tampa Bay Rays
Toronto Blue Jays
Washington Nationals

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Salt River Fields, just prior to its debut game on February 26, 2011
Salt River Fields was the only new ballpark to open in 2011, when it drew rave reviews and plenty of fans (10,888 average a game).

A new ballpark was the big story of spring training in 2011, as the Diamondbacks' and Rockies' joint facility on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community's reservation drew large crowds all spring long, enabling the two teams to draw more fans than any other in either Arizona or Florida. Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, which was fully funded by the two tribes on whose land it stands, collectively attracted 359,308 fans to the 33 games that were played in the 11,000-seat stadium.

Overall, 474 sanctioned spring training games were played in Arizona and Florida in 26 ballparks and a total of 3,185,569 fans paid to see them.

In the Cactus League, 235 games were played by 15 teams in 11 ballparks. Total attendance was 1,613,853, an average of 6,867 per game. Six games were rained out, all on March 21. Two of the league's games were played in Tucson, and they drew 18,239 fans for games that benefited the families who were directly affected by the Tucson area shooting on January 8 that most notably critically wounded Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Both games were played at Kino Stadium, which was known as Tucson Electric Park during its 13 seasons of Cactus League use. The 2011 season was the first one since 1946 in which spring training was not permanently held in Tucson. The opening of Salt River Fields just east of Scottsdale lured Tucson's two remaining teams, the Diamondbacks and Rockies, into the metropolitan Phoenix area, where all 15 of the Cactus League's teams now train within 50 miles of each other.

In the Grapefruit League, 239 games were played by 15 teams in 15 ballparks. Total attendance was 1,571,716, an average of 6,576 per game. Just three games were rained out, all of them on March 28. Additionally, another 28,504 paid to watch eight games that were played by Major League clubs against collegiate or non-MLB teams.

The average attendance for a spring training game in 2011 was 6,721, which was up 68 fans per game from 2010, when 432 games drew a total of 2,873,880 fans to Cactus and Grapefruit League ballparks.

Salt River Fields was the only new ballpark to open in 2011, but Sarasota's Ed Smith Stadium reopened following an extensive offseason renovation that transformed the aging stadium, which had opened in 1989, into a modern ballpark. Elsewhere in Florida, Fort Myers' City of Palms Park, home to the Red Sox since 1993, hosted its final Grapefruit League game on March 29. The Red Sox were the sole team moving into a new facility in 2012, which is when JetBlue Park opened less than 10 miles from the now tenantless City of Palms Park.


2011 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.  Orioles
7.  Tigers
8.  Cardinals
9.  Rays
10. Mets
11. Pirates
12. Blue Jays
13. Nationals
14. Marlins
15. Astros
Tampa
Clearwater
Fort Myers
Orlando
Fort Myers
Sarasota
Lakeland
Jupiter
Port Charlotte
Port St. Lucie
Bradenton
Dunedin
Viera
Jupiter
Kissimmee
10,872
9,252
8,091
8,021
7,281
7,214
6,824
6,177
5,819
5,297
5,286
4,546
4,397
4,340
3,845
163,085
157,292
129,453
136,360
131,053
115,417
122,827
92,652
87,291
90,057
89,861
68,195
65,958
73,782
65,367
Cactus League City Average Total
1.  Diamondbacks
2.  Rockies
3.  Giants
4.  Cubs
5.  Dodgers
6.  Mariners
7.  Rangers
8.  White Sox
9.  Angels
10. Padres
11. A's
12. Royals
13. Brewers
14. Reds
15. Indians
Scottsdale
Scottsdale
Scottsdale
Mesa
Glendale
Peoria
Surprise
Glendale
Tempe
Peoria
Phoenix
Surprise
Phoenix
Goodyear
Goodyear
11,161
10,598
10,036
9,443
7,365
7,021
6,900
6,117
5,894
5,060
5,009
4,860
4,646
3,789
3,734
189,737
169,571
160,574
160,536
103,114
112,338
103,507
91,749
88,413
75,906
80,145
72,900
74,330
53,050
59,744


2011 Grapefruit League Standings


  W L  T GB
Twins 19 11    -
Phillies 20 13    ½
Tigers 20 14    1
Braves 16 12  4  2
Blue Jays 16 14  1  3
Mets 17 15  2  3
Nationals 15 14    3½
Rays 15 14  2  3½
Marlins 15 15  1  4
Orioles 15 15  2  4
Cardinals 14 16  1  5
Yankees 13 15  3  5
Red Sox 13 19  2  7
Pirates 11 20    8½
Astros 11 23    10

2011 Cactus League Standings


  W L  T GB
Royals 20 10  1  -
Rockies 20 11  1  ½
Brewers 19 11  1  1
Giants 20 12    1
Mariners 16 12  2  3
Angels 15 13  1  4
Reds 16 14  1  4
Indians 15 14  2  4½
Padres 13 16  1  6½
Rangers 13 16  1  6½
Cubs 13 18    7½
Dodgers 13 18  1  7½
A's 12 18  1  8
White Sox 11 20  1  9½
D-backs 12 25    11½


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.


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