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
Houston Astros
Miami Marlins
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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JetBlue Park, during batting practice prior to its debut game on March 3, 2012
In 2012, the Red Sox moved into brand new JetBlue Park, which was very much modeled after Fenway Park.

For the first time in eight years a new spring training ballpark was built in Florida, as a taste of Fenway Park came South with the debut of JetBlue Park, the Boston-inspired ballpark in Fort Myers. Featuring a Green Monster and the same field dimensions as Fenway, JetBlue Park's 2012 opening was a crowd drawing success as the Red Sox easily set their total, average and single-game spring training attendance records in what became the Grapefruit League's second biggest ballpark, which replaced what was previously the Florida circuit's seventh largest stadium, City of Palms Park, which became the 7th of its kind to be abandoned and remain unused (by MLB teams) in the Sunshine State in the previous 10 years.

While the Red Sox were drawing big crowds to JetBlue Park, the Dodgers hosted the largest ever crowd in a spring training ballpark -- 13,655 -- for their March 17 game against the Giants at Glendale's Camelback Ranch. The new record bested the old one, set in 2010 at the Peoria Sports Complex, by 26 fans.

Overall, 465 sanctioned spring training games were played in Arizona and Florida in 27 ballparks and a total of 3,360,742 fans paid to see them.

In the Cactus League, 232 games were played by 15 teams in 12 ballparks. Total attendance was 1,739,675, an average of 7,499 per game. Three games were rained out, all on March 18. Three of the league's games were played at Tucson's Kino Stadium, and they drew 22,981 fans to the former spring training home of the Diamondbacks and White Sox. The Diamondbacks' current regular season home, Chase Field, also hosted two games, contributing 27,593 fans to the 2012 Cactus League total.

In the Grapefruit League, 233 games were played by 15 teams in 15 ballparks. Total attendance was 1,621,067, an average of 6,957 per game. Just three games were rained out, all of them on March 11. There were two official spring training games played at the majors' newest ballpark in Miami, and the pair of Marlins-Yankees exhibitions drew 57,005 to Marlins Park. Additionally, another 36,782 paid to watch seven games that were played by Major League clubs against collegiate or non-MLB teams.

The average attendance for a spring training game in 2012 was 7,227, which was up 506 fans per game from 2011, when 474 games drew a total of 3,185,569 fans to Cactus and Grapefruit League ballparks.

The 2012 spring training season ended a four-year run of substantial franchise relocation, as nine teams changed their spring training sites from 2009-2012. In 2013, every team stayed put and no new ballparks opened, which had a lot to do with that stability.


2012 Attendance Rankings


(home games only, ranked by per game average)
Grapefruit League City Average Total
1.  Yankees
2.  Red Sox
3.  Phillies
4.  Tigers
5.  Braves
6.  Twins
7.  Orioles
8.  Cardinals
9.  Rays
10. Pirates
11. Mets
12. Marlins
13. Nationals
14. Blue Jays
15. Astros
Tampa
Fort Myers
Clearwater
Lakeland
Orlando
Fort Myers
Sarasota
Jupiter
Port Charlotte
Bradenton
Port St. Lucie
Jupiter
Viera
Dunedin
Kissimmee
10,675
9,326
9,287
7,687
7,490
7,115
7,093
6,604
5,495
5,493
5,358
4,843
4,657
4,471
4,027
170,804
167,875
157,887
138,363
127,328
120,947
106,397
85,858
87,916
82,390
80,377
67,804
74,511
76,008
56,379
Cactus League City Average Total
1.  Diamondbacks
2.  Giants
3.  Rockies
4.  Cubs
5.  Angels
6.  Dodgers
7.  Mariners
8.  Rangers
9.  White Sox
10. A's
11. Padres
12. Brewers
13. Royals
14. Indians
15. Reds
Scottsdale
Scottsdale
Scottsdale
Mesa
Tempe
Glendale
Peoria
Surprise
Glendale
Phoenix
Peoria
Phoenix
Surprise
Goodyear
Goodyear
11,679
10,520
10,143
9,580
8,675
8,118
7,899
7,460
6,137
5,798
5,486
5,476
5,083
4,677
3,867
186,868
168,320
182,565
153,281
130,126
121,769
102,681
104,443
98,198
57,981
87,777
82,140
76,238
74,836
61,878


2012 Grapefruit League Standings


  W L  T GB
Blue Jays 24  7  1  -
Tigers 20  8  5  2½
Cardinals 16  9  2  5
Yankees 18 12  3  5½
Red Sox 15 11  4  6½
Twins 18 15  1  7
Astros 14 16    9½
Orioles 11 13  6  9½
Marlins 11 14  4  10
Nationals 12 16  3  10½
Phillies 12 16  4  10½
Rays 10 16  6  11½
Braves 10 18  5  12½
Pirates  9 18  2  13
Mets  9 20  2  14

2012 Cactus League Standings


  W L  T GB
A's 14  5  2  -
Mariners 16  9  1  1
Angels 17 11  2  1½
Padres 19 15    2½
Rockies 17 15  1  3½
Giants 16 14  3  3½
Cubs 16 15  2  4
Dodgers 14 13  4  4
Royals 15 15    4½
Brewers 15 17  2  5½
Reds 15 17  1  5½
D-backs 15 18  2  6
White Sox 13 18    7
Rangers 11 16  1  7
Indians  7 22  3 12


Graham Knight has been to spring training in Florida 13 times and has made 5 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 released the debut of the Florida edition prior to the 2012 spring training season.


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