Goodyear's First Spring in the Cactus League Labeled A Success?
Goodyear's inaugural spring training was considered a success, at least by the city, which noted on their Web site:

"Almost 100,000 fans attended spring-training games at the Ballpark, a record for the Cleveland Indians. The final tally represents a 14 percent increase over the team's previous record in 2008. The season’s high attendance resulted in strong ticket sales, which grossed nearly $1.6 million and is about 17 to 20 percent higher than projected."

But there's some spin in that statement.

True, the Tribe set a total attendance record, but average game attendance was down 448 fans per game from 2008, Cleveland's final in Winter Haven.

Here's the team's home attendance numbers for comparison:

2009: 96,080 fans for 18 games, a 5,338 average
Goodyear Ballpark was filled to 53.4% of its capacity (10,000)

2008: 87,383 fans for 15 games, a 5,826 average
Winter Haven's Chain of Lakes Park was filled to 83.2% of its capacity (7,000)

So the case can be made that the Indians' first year in Goodyear was anything but a success, despite the city's projections, which if accurate would have meant the per game average would've been only between 4,270 and 4,430. The Indians averaged more than 4,500 in each of their last five years in Winter Haven, which has almost exactly half the population of Goodyear (52,864 vs. 26,487).

Truth be told, it's hard to believe the truth is being told when the official word is "the season’s high attendance resulted in strong ticket sales." But it's even harder to believe that Goodyear expected such abysmal numbers in the first place. The economy may have been abysmal itself, but it wasn't that bad that the ballpark, on average, should not have been half full.

After all, if expectations were that low, why would the city be so eager to spend $108 million on a new ballpark and training complex in the first place?

2011 Spring Training News Archives
Salt River Fields Joins Spring Training Ballpark Line-Up
The newest spring training stadium in the Cactus League officially opened on February 26, 2011, when a capacity crowd of 12,514 helped the Diamondbacks and Rockies christen their new winter home, Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. With its debut done, all 15 teams that train in Arizona now do so in the Phoenix area, as the D-backs and Rox moved up to the Valley of the Sun from Tucson. For all the details on the new Salt River Fields stadium in east Scottsdale, but sure to check out its completely up-to-date page here at Spring Training Connection.

Spring Training Baseball (and the Rays) Returns to Al Lang Field
For the first 11 seasons of their big league existence, the Tampa Bay Rays trained for the regular season just down the street from their regular season home. When the Rays left Progress Energy Park (better known as Al Lang Field) following their final exhibition game there on March 28, 2008, it appeared that spring training in St. Petersburg would be gone for good, the bayfront grounds where baseball players had trained since 1922 no longer needed. But after mostly languishing for the three years since the Rays moved to Port Charlotte, old Al Lang Field has been given new life thanks to foreign teams choosing to train for America's national pastime on American soil. And so during 2011 spring training national teams from Canada and the Netherlands will be playing games at Progress Energy Park, where on March 9 a split-squad of Rays will play the Dutch squad in a "friendly" that will draw attention to the St. Petersburg International Baseball program announced by the city's mayor in October. Mayor Bill Foster's goal is to have the international teams play multiple games against Major League teams, but for year #1 of the experiment the Rays' return to their roots is the only such match-up. Meanwhile, the Canadians and Dutch will play 15 to 20 games at Al Lang Field starting on February 26.

2010 Spring Training News Archives
Pros Perfect Against College Foes in 2010
Once upon a time, professionals clashed with amateurs in exhibitions to kick off spring training. That explains why it wasn't uncommon for an inaugural game at a ballpark to pit a local nine against a Major League squad. Such was the case in 1991 when Edison Community College and the Minnesota Twins christened Hammond Stadium. Ditto for the stadium six miles from it, City of Palms Park, which made its debut two years later with the Boston Red Sox hosting Boston College. Seventeen years later, BC still makes their annual pilgrimage to Fort Myers to play the BoSox, but spring training games involving college teams are becoming increasingly rare. In 2010 there were seven such match-ups, all played in Florida, where an eighth non-traditional exhibition was hosted by the Yankees in Tampa against their "Future Stars." All eight games were won by the pros, by an aggregate score of 89-19, which translates into an average score of roughly 11-2. The kids fared better in 2009, when Manatee Community College upset the Pirates 6-4, which was the lone blemish by the pros in a mere five games. The group of collegians that went 0-7 in 2010 hailed from Boston College, Florida Southern, Florida State, Miami, Michigan, Northeastern and the State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota, which changed its name from Manatee Community College shortly after obtaining glory in Bradenton in 2009.

Judge Upholds Sarasota's Deal With Orioles
It took over half a year, but Sarasota County prevailed in the lawsuit that was filed against them in December by a pair of citizens groups. Citizens for Sunshine and Sarasota Citizens for Responsible Government had jointly filed suit in Sarasota Circuit Court believing open meeting and public records laws were violated during Sarasota's pursuit of a spring training tenant to replace the Cincinnati Reds. On July 8, Circuit Judge Bob Bennett disagreed. "There was clearly no attempt to subvert the law by avoiding public debate," wrote the judge in his 16-page ruling, which was issued six days after he concluded listening to a week of testimony in a Venice, FL courtroom. Last July, the Baltimore Orioles agreed to move to Sarasota from Fort Lauderdale in a deal that was contingent upon $31.2 million worth of renovations being completed at Ed Smith Stadium and the 11-mile away complex at Twin Lakes Park, where the Orioles' minor leaguers have been training since 1991. Renovations at both sites were to begin in April, but the litigation forced a two-month delay as the county culled funds "from a variety of different sources" to fund the project that could not be bonded out as planned. Bennett's ruling means that Sarasota can now legally issue the bonds required to pay for the renovations, assuming the plaintiffs do not appeal the judge's decision. Regardless, Ed Smith Stadium is on schedule to be significantly rebuilt by mid-February, but the legal wranglings and their associated delays mean its scoreboard, lighting and player clubhouses will stay as is until the following spring.

Citizens Groups File Lawsuit Over Sarasota's Deal With Orioles
Scheduled renovations to Sarasota's Ed Smith Stadium are on hold, pending the resolution of a lawsuit filed in Sarasota Circuit Court against the city and county over their issuance of $26.2 million in construction bonds. As reported in the January 11th Sarasota Herald-Tribune, "While the lawsuit may not derail the Orioles' plans to make Sarasota their spring training home, it may mean the Orioles have to play in the existing Ed Smith Stadium for more than one year." The two citizens groups behind the lawsuit say open meeting and public records laws were violated during Sarasota's pursuit of a spring training tenant to replace the Reds. Sarasota Citizens for Responsible Government and Citizens for Sunshine are also challenging the financing plan for stadium renovations, which are to be funded by a $7.5 million city bond and an $18.7 million county bond. Work on Ed Smith Stadium was to have begun shortly after the Orioles concluded their first season of training in the ballpark on April 3.

2009 Spring Training News Archives
D-backs and White Sox to Give 50K to Pima County Instead of Playing Charity Game
Not a lot of people know this, but a game, usually the first of the spring, in a handful of (mostly Arizona) ballparks is designated as a charity game, with the proceeds from it given back to the community. An example of such a game in 2010 is the Padres-Mariners match-up at the Peoria Sports Complex on March 4. In years past, Tucson Electric Park's two tenants played a charity game, but with the White Sox having bolted for Glendale last year the contractually obligated game won't be played this year. Instead, the Arizona Daily Star reported on January 1 that the Diamondbacks and White Sox plan to give Pima County $50,000 (combined, not each) to make up for the lost charity proceeds. Tucson is the county seat of Pima County and had been the spring training base of the White Sox from 1998 to 2008, while the hometown D-backs are in their final season of training in "The Old Pueblo."

Cubs and White Sox to Play Spring Training Set in Vegas
Sin City's annual "Big League Weekend" will feature two rivals from the Windy City, as Chicago's Cubs and White Sox will play a pair of games in Las Vegas on March 12 and 13 at Cashman Field. The pairing is a rematch of a mini series played last year, when the White Sox won both games before overflow crowds at the 9,334-seat home of the Las Vegas 51s. The two games in 2010 will take place on a Friday night and Saturday afternoon, but just like last year each team will bring only half of their squad, with the other half remaining in Arizona to play regularly scheduled Cactus League games. For the Cubs, their Big League Weekend appearance will mark the sixth straight year they have played a spring training game in Las Vegas, and ninth overall. Their first visit to the desert came in 1993, when they played the White Sox at the end of spring training in a game that drew 15,025 fans, which is still the Cashman Field attendance record. In 2009, the two teams drew 11,459 and 11,174 to midweek games played on March 4 and 5. The actual "Big League Weekend" games were between the Mariners and Rockies on April 3 and 4.

A's Approached By Developer; Phoenix Vows to Keep Team
Following an overture to the Oakland A's by developer Marty DeRito, who has land to spare near the Salt River Reservation in Scottsdale, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon "is digging in to protect the city's turf," reported the The Arizona Republic on September 5. The Athletics' lease at Phoenix Municipal Stadium, the Cactus League's oldest ballpark, expires in 2011 and the mayor said that the city plans to discuss a new or refurbished stadium with the team to keep them in Phoenix, where they've trained since 1982. "The Oakland A's aren't moving," said Gordon. Strong words indeed, but that remains to be seen.

Orioles Depart Fort Lauderdale for Sarasota
The Orioles' 14-year stay in Fort Lauderdale officially ended on July 22 when Sarasota's county commissioners approved a $31.2 million deal to bring the team back to where they trained in 1991 and from 1993 to 1995. The Orioles signed a 30-year lease to replace the Cincinnati Reds at Ed Smith Stadium, which will undergo a county-funded overhaul following the 2010 spring season to bring the 20-year old ballpark up to modern, amenity-laden standards. The Orioles departure from Fort Lauderdale Stadium, which opened in 1962 and had been used continuously ever since, ends that's city long history as a spring training host and reduced the number of teams training on Florida's East Coast to four (Cardinals, Marlins, Mets and Nationals).

The Worst Draw In Spring Training Is...
The Houston Astros at Osceola County Stadium, who drew a record 62,326 fans in 2009 for 19 games, giving them an average draw of 3,666, the lowest in the Grapefruit League. The league average was 6,030. The stadium in which the Astros train has just 5,300 seats. The Astros get 75 percent of the ticket revenue. Ditto for concessions and parking revenue. Ticket sales did top $1 million for the first time in the ballpark's 25-year history, while concessions were flat and parking was "down a few thousand," according to facility manager Pete Rodriguez and the Osceola News Gazette.

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Graham Knight spent most of spring training in 2009 at a ballpark, compiling the guides written for this Web site. He visited all 26 ballparks, starting in Goodyear on February 25 and finishing in Fort Myers on April 4. If that doesn't make him an expert, then maybe his eight previous trips to either the Cactus or Grapefruit League do. As for his News & Views, the news is, of course, the news, but any interpretations of the facts it contains are strictly based upon his experiences and opinions.

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