Tampa Bay Rays: Spring Training Returns To St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — It’s been about 15 years since St. Petersburg hosted any Major League Baseball team for spring training, but the Tampa Bay Rays are bringing it back to Sunshine City this spring.

Hurricane Ian’s devastating hit to Southwest Florida at the end of September left the Rays’ usual spring training home base, Charlotte Sports Park in Charlotte County, with too much damage to welcome the team this year.

“It was pretty significant damage,” Sean Doherty, tourism director, Punta Gorda/Englewood Beach Visitor & Convention Bureau, told Patch. “More than we even realized at first. Now, we need to get it to where it’s fully operational.”

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This forced the team to scramble and find alternative plans for spring training. The Rays are splitting their time between Walt Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista and the team’s regular season home at Tropicana Field. The team’s full schedule can be found here.

This creates a unique opportunity for St. Petersburg businesses and attractions, as the area hasn’t seen spring training in years, tourism leaders told Patch.

For decades, Al Lang Stadium - originally Al Lang Field - has been home to a number of professional teams each spring, including the Braves, Yankees, Cardinals, Giants, Mets, Orioles and Rays, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

The last spring training game at Al Lang Stadium was played on March 28, 2008, according to Preserve the Burg.

Chris Steinocher, president and CEO of the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce, can’t wait to see local businesses tap into the excitement surrounding the return of spring training.

“It’s St. Pete, and when we hear that spring training’s back, and for those of us who really understand what St. Pete has meant to baseball over the years, this is a really warm feeling,” he told Patch. “It brings back a lot of smiles and cheers to the community. This means a lot in Florida and we’re blessed in this West Coast region. We have a majority of spring training teams. It brings real dollars to our community and employs real people. There’s an impact from spring training and we’re all going to benefit from it.”

Though the chamber and Visit St. Pete Clearwater, the county’s tourism agency, don’t have a breakdown of the economic impact of spring training on the region, Steinocher said the Grapefruit League has an impact of about $687 million annually throughout Florida.

“You will hear registers ringing throughout our Central Avenue corridors - and all of the St. Pete area - and that's a good thing,” he said.

Local businesses are gearing up for spring training, which brings the Rays back to St. Petersburg in early March.

Mark Ferguson, owner of Ferg’s Sports Bar & Grill right across the street from Tropicana Field, said he’s expecting a busier than normal early spring.

“It’s not like the regular season, but there’s gonna be a lot more tourists in town. That will bring a lot more tourists through our building,” he told Patch.

Ferguson is familiar with the city’s spring training history closer to the waterfront, but it’s never taken place so close to Ferg’s.

“So, it’s definitely gonna be a food impact on us,” he said.

The bar began hiring earlier than normal for the baseball season and is also planning to host live music after every spring training game to draw in the crowd leaving Tropicana Field.

With the return of spring training to St. Pete, “essentially, you have an extended baseball season downtown,” Steve Hayes, president and CEO of Visit St. Pete Clearwater, told Patch. “Once the regular season starts and gets going, you have the regular games.”

Pinellas County is already home to the spring training facilities for two other MLB teams - the Philadelphia Phillies in Clearwater and the Toronto Blue Jays in Dunedin.

Their established fan base combined with the Rays staying put in St. Pete this year means “even more awareness to the area as a destination overall,” Hayes said.

He added, “There are those who follow nothing but baseball when they’re here. But most people are here to see a combination of things. That’s what makes the trip so fun and exciting, and that’s the beauty of Pinellas County. We have this variety of things you can do. Yeah, you're coming here for a baseball game, but here’s other things to do.”