Pittsburgh Pirates: Spring Training Back To ‘Normal’ In Bradenton

BRADENTON, FL — It’s a big year for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Manatee County, as spring training returns to the area for its first full, regular season since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The team’s first home game takes place Saturday afternoon. Find a full schedule here.

“There’s a lot more certainty, which we have not had in the last three years, and that’s nice,” Craig Warzecha, general manager of the Bradenton Marauders minor league team and director of sales and marketing for the Pirates’ Florida operations, told Patch. “Looking back to March 2020, spring training got shut down just about midway through (the season.) March 12. It’s a day etched in my mind. We were supposed to have a night game the next night.”

In 2021, with strict COVID-19 protocols, the Pirates’ LECOM Park could only operate at about 25 percent capacity. Then, in 2022, the MLB lockout over contract negotiations between players and team owners delayed the start of the spring training season.

“We only had about nine games,” Warzecha said. “This year we’re excited for normal spring training with a full schedule … It’s a strong schedule with some good weekend dates, which will mean strong attendance for us.”

This year also happens to mark the 100th anniversary of Major League Baseball in Bradenton, which the team will honor throughout spring training. It’s also Pittsburgh’s 55th year calling Manatee County its spring training home.

Before the Phillies, which came to Bradenton in 1969, the St. Louis Cardinals first played in the area in 1923, Jim Trdinich, director of player relations and team historian, told Patch. Other teams to play in the area over the years include the Philadelphia Phillies, the Boston Red Sox, the Boston/Milwaukee Braves and Kansas City/Oakland Athletics.

The area was also home to a Negro Leagues team, the Bradenton Nine Devils, and a member of the Florida State League, the Bradenton Growers, in the early 1920s.

To educate those attending spring training games about this history, the team has displayed 11 large panels featuring information about these various teams, as well as the Pirates’ relationship to the area and changes to LECOM Park, Trdinich said.

“And we want to make it a year-long celebration. We don’t want it to begin and end with spring training. We’re just kickstarting the celebration with these displays. It will carry into the Marauders season,” Warzecha added.

Spring training has a large economic impact on the region, bringing in about $40 million during the six-week period, according to Elliott Falcione, executive director of the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.

That makes this year’s full spring training season — “the first one in a few years” — so exciting for businesses and tourist attractions, he said. “This will bring in a strong crowd, not only to Manatee County, but right into the urban core. This is a big part of our future in tourism (here), to focus on urban core redevelopment. That includes how can the city and the county continue to work with the Pirates to continue to develop around LECOM Park.

Still, even with canceled and delayed seasons, there wasn’t much of an economic loss to the region. Because of the area’s diversity, the county isn’t relying solely on spring training tourists.

“It’s peak tourism season and we have a diversified brand in the marketplace. When you have rainouts or a lockout situation or you have any kind of adversarial situation, hopefully other segments can be kicked in to sustain tourism,” Falcione said. “Just like during COVID — we were only 10 percent down in tourism in 2020.”

That year, his team worked hard to bring youth and other sports tournaments to the area at a time when many other states were shut down because of the pandemic.

“And even though the economic impact last year (during the MLB lockout) was less than $40 million, we still had a strong pent up demand of leisure vacations in our area,” he said. “They came knowing baseball was not playing. You cannot put all your eggs in one basket.”

Still, many local businesses, especially those near LECOM Park, are excited to welcome spring training back, Falcione added. “Hotels, restaurants, bars near the ballpark will all see extra business.”

Denise Tschida, owner of Motorworks Brewing, just a short walk to the stadium, said March is usually their busiest time of year because of spring training.

“Even though it’s only 16 games, it brings a lot of people from all the world, really, to this area,” she told Patch. “It’s really wonderful to have the Pirates as our neighbors. Every year, we’re very excited about it and even more so this year. Three years ago, we were shocked when we were shut down on March 17 at 5 p.m., but hopefully, we’re well beyond that. And we’re all geared up with lots of yellow and gold shirts. Our staff is ready. And it looks like the weather will be great.”

During spring training, Motorworks opens up inexpensive parking for those attending games, charging them $5 and offering the, $2 back on a drink if they come in before or after the game.

“So, they mosey on down to the game and hopefully come back and enjoy our beer and our live entertainment in Florida’s largest beer garden,” Tschida said. “It’s a fun month and good revenue for us and good exposure to the world.”