Lee County needs a tourism spending boost after Hurricane Ian. Can spring training deliver?

Major League Baseball spring training is finally back in full bloom this week, following three seasons marred by reduced game schedules and attendance limits due first to the COVID-19 pandemic and then the 2022 MLB lockout.

In Lee County, baseball’s six-week preseason will take on even more economic importance this year, considering it’s the first extended tourism event since Hurricane Ian impacted the area. A 2018 study estimated the county gains an estimated $69 million in annual spending thanks to travelers attending Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins exhibition games.

With the majority of the devastation left from Ian confined to the beaches and limiting the availability of coastal hotel rooms, spring breakers and sun worshipers will be heading to areas outside of Lee this spring and taking their economic impact with them.

“What we know is that our coastline is still what needs to be recovered,” said John Lai, CEO of the Sanibel-Captiva Chamber of Commerce as well as the regional director for the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association. “Looking at the 2023 season, we’d be forecasting a really depressed season if not for spring training.

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“We think that this could be a good shot in the arm for our tourism industry in the first quarter which is so desperately needed.”

However, even prior to 2020, when Florida’s Grapefruit League canceled roughly the final half of its season due to the pandemic, statewide attendance at spring training games was already showing signs of decline. If this trend continues in 2023, Lee County’s tourism impact from spring training could be dampened.

Spring training attendance on decline across Florida

The average crowd at a Grapefruit League game hit an all-time high in 2016 at nearly 7,100 fans, according to data from the Florida Sports Foundation.

That record-setting spring followed a wave of stadium renovations in Sarasota (Ed Smith Stadium), Bradenton (LECOM Park), Port Charlotte (Charlotte Sports Park), and at Fort Myers’ Hammond Stadium, the spring home of the Twins. Also in 2016, Lee County saw the debut of JetBlue Park, the new home of the Red Sox, who relocated from City of Palms Park in downtown Fort Myers. Those projects combined to raise seating capacities statewide by more than 6,000, giving more people the opportunity to crowd into ballparks.

However, over the next three years, the number of fans at spring training games dwindled by 11% statewide to an average of about 6,300 from 2017-19. That drop came even with the opening of the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches in 2017, which houses both the Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals, two teams that traditionally struggled to draw crowds to their spring training ballparks.

Between 2010 and 2016, each was in the bottom third of average attendance among the Grapefruit League’s 15 teams, with the Astros finishing dead last every year.

In their first three seasons at the new West Palm Beach facility, the Astros’ average crowd increased 8.7% to 4,156 fans compared to its attendance from 2010-16 at Osceola County Stadium in Kissimmee. Yet the Nationals’ average crowd dropped 4.5% to 4,968 fans compared to its attendance the previous seven seasons at Space Coast Stadium in Viera. Statewide, each team still ranked in the bottom third of attendance for their first three springs in West Palm Beach.

Palm Beach County built a brand-new, state-of-the-art facility, but so far, the fans haven’t come, at least not in droves.

Red Sox, Twins rate among best draws in Grapefruit League

The good news for Lee County is that spring attendance figures for the Red Sox and Twins have perennially come in comfortably above the statewide average.

The Red Sox set a franchise record by drawing an average of 9,960 fans to its Grapefruit League games in 2016, the first year of JetBlue Park. Attendance remained fairly consistent for the next three springs, with an average crowd of 9,821 fans, about 56% higher than the statewide average from 2017-19.

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Following a renovation that increased capacity at Hammond Stadium by about 1,200 beginning in 2014, the Twins drew 8,067 fans per game in 2016, nearly matching their all-time record set in 2011.

However, from 2017-19, the team’s average attendance dipped 10%, to about 7,250 fans. Still, that represented about 900 more fans per game than the average Grapefruit League crowd and still put the Twins among the top-four spring draws in Florida.

In 2020, the Twins were averaging nearly 7,800 fans per game before the pandemic shut down spring training.

“I think we were on pace to set a record attendance that year,” said Mark Weber, now in his ninth year as the Twins’ director of Florida business operations.

Strict attendance limits in 2021 and the uncertainty of when (or if) spring games would be played in 2022 due to a labor dispute between the MLB owners and players severely depressed crowd totals, with an average of 3,150 fans attending Grapefruit League games the past two springs.

The Red Sox averaged slightly more than 5,000 fans the past two springs; the Twins close to 3,500. Weber said both franchises were looking forward to the first “normal” spring training seasons since 2019 and then Hurricane Ian hit.

“That certainly created some challenges for this community, but I think you’ve seen a lot of people be pretty resilient and pull together,” he said. “We’re hoping that spring training for Lee County for both teams can be part of the recovery process.

“I think people want normalcy. I think a lot of our fans, guests, tourists, visitors, our local people want to get back to doing something fun and we want to hopefully provide that experience.”

Weber said so far ticket sales have been strong for the Twins’ slate of 17 spring training games. But he acknowledged that people’s buying habits may have changed over the past three years and some may have found other places to spend their entertainment dollars.

“We have to earn their trust back,” he said. “We have to make sure we provide not only a good product but a great experience when they come to the game whether it be with parking, ticket takers, ushers, fan experience with concessions so they feel like it was a good value.”

According to sales representatives from the Red Sox and Twins, as of last week, tickets were still available for every spring training game at JetBlue Park and Hammond Stadium.

Last Wednesday, the second day of full-squad workouts at Hammond Stadium featured a number of onlookers, including Bill Blascow. The 64-year-old Illinois native has lived in Lee County for a decade and said he normally attends a handful of spring training games each year. During the past two springs, however, he just made it to one.

“It’s always a fun time,” said Blascow, fresh off purchasing four tickets to a Twins-Rays matchup from the Hammond box office. “It seems like there’s a lot more interest, a lot of people here today.”

How spring training visitors can help Lee County recover

Lai said last week that Lee County’s available hotel room inventory was at 68% with the remaining inaccessible due to damage from Hurricane Ian.

“I’ll be honest, you’re probably looking at two years before we get any more of that back,” he said.

Spring training travelers looking for more to do besides attend baseball games are being directed to the coastal activities that are still operating.

“The message we’ve been sharing is that the waters are still beautiful and fishing is great so we’ve been pushing them to our fishing guides and captains,” he said. “So in lieu of a beach, they may go out on a boat one day and do a sunset cruise or a fishing trip or a dolphin cruise instead of spending three days at a beach.

Lai said the Sanibel-Captiva Chamber have answered more than 100 calls from people how they can help when they make their annual spring training pilgrimages. The chamber’s website directs those interested in aiding in the recovery to organizations such as the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation and Keep Lee County Beautiful, which are helping these “volun-tourists” connect with scheduled beach, mangrove and bike path cleanups.

“It’s been great to see this take place because it really does show the loyalty these visitors have to Lee County and our beaches,” Lai said. “When they do book their stay and visit for spring training they may be at the Hyatt Coconut Point or they may be staying at the Crown Plaza or somewhere else, but they can still come over to the beaches, they can still spend money to support the restaurants and shops are open.”

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Spring training: Red Sox, Twins fans counted on to boost Lee County