Team Spirit

For baseball fans, spring training is a time of renewed hope and optimism that their teams will wind up on top come fall. The pre-season also reintroduces people to the crack of the bat, emerald-green turf and warm sunshine that will elude most parts of the country for long weeks to come. The allure of it all is powerful enough to attract droves of visitors to destinations such as Fort Myers, where two major league franchises will gear up for the pennant race.

And just as the baseball spectacle serves as a spring tonic for legions of fans, it also provides a boost to the local tourism industry and to the overall economy.

A 2000 study commissioned by the Florida Sports Foundation estimated that Major League Baseball spring training has an average economic impact of $24.5 million in each Florida community that hosts a Grapefruit League team. With both 2004 World Series champs the Boston Red Sox and the division-winning Minnesota Twins based in Fort Myers for the spring, that means almost $50 million in Lee County. And according to Jeff Mielke, executive director of the Lee County Sports Authority, the impact is probably even greater.

"We've got such a fantastic tourism season already built in that we should be well above the average," he says. Consider, Mielke suggests, that during spring training, which overlaps with the high season for tourism in Southwest Florida, hotel rooms here might fetch twice as much as they do in another area considered in the statewide study. "I think it's even more valuable to our community than what the survey says," Mielke says.

A League of their Own

In spring 2004, the two Fort Myers-based teams led the Grape-fruit League in percentage of available seats sold. The Twins posted an average paid attendance of 7,350 for its 15 games at Hammond Stadium, part of the Lee County Sports Complex. At City of Palms Park, the Red Sox averaged 7,240 paid fans over 16 games. In total attendance, the teams finished behind only the New York Yankees, who play in a larger stadium. Last December, the Red Sox announced plans to add about 700 new seats in time for this spring.

The Twins and the Red Sox each pay $300,000 in annual rent to the county, which owns both teams' facilities. In December 2003, the county took over operation of City of Palms Park from the City of Fort Myers; and the Red Sox renewed their lease through 2019. The Twins have signed to play at Hammond Stadium through 2020. "That says a lot for the partnership they've enjoyed with Lee County," says Mielke.

Fort Myers Mayor Jim Humphrey says that transferring ownership of City of Palms Park to the county was important for everyone involved. "That has brought an added benefit to our city, because in the past city taxpayers were the ones footing the bill," he says. The economic benefits of having a team are felt countywide, not just in the city, Humphrey says; and the county has the resources to maintain and improve the park. "It made it a great public-public-private partnership," he says of the deal involving the county, city and Sox.

Here All Year

The regular-season success of both ball clubs certainly contributes to their successful spring campaigns. The Twins are three-time defending American League Central Division champs, while the Red Sox, of course, won the World Series last year. In addition, both hail from cold-weather markets. "What people are looking for there is a chance to escape the frozen tundra in February and March," says Twins president Dave St. Peter.

But the teams have expanded their operations in Southwest Florida well beyond the spring training months. "It's really emerged as a year-round training center for us," says St. Peter. "We have our class-A team, the Miracle, in Fort Myers, [and] a rookie league team in the Gulf Coast League. In addition, we've turned it into our year-round rehabilitation center. [We] are completing construction of a year-round weight-training and conference center."

The Red Sox have also made the area a home away from home. "We're extremely pleased with Lee County," says Todd Stephenson, the team's coordinator of Florida operations. "It's a first-class municipality." Steph-enson notes that the Red Sox have a training facility and a Gulf Coast League team here; and he figures that, all told, the organization spends almost $1 million each year on housing in the area. The minor league team alone accounts for about 10,000 hotel room nights, Stephenson estimates. "A majority of those are between April and August, which is classified as the off-season," he says.

As the teams have planted roots, housing has come to mean more than just hotel stays and condo rentals. "A significant number of our players, at the major league level and in the minor league, have established homes in the Lee County area-Fort Myers, Estero, wherever it might be," says St. Peter. "A number of players are living there year-round."

Stephenson says that a few Red Sox staff members have also purchased homes here. Mayor Humphrey points out that one of them is Mike Dee, the club's chief operating officer and a key figure in the team's business dealings with the city and the county. Dee bought a home in Fort Myers last year. "[The Sox] have become a part of the community," says Humphrey.

A Charitable Home Run

The teams' charity work also reflects their commitment to the area. Sharon MacDonald, executive director of the Lee Memorial Health System Foundation, says that "both teams are very conscious of their responsibility to support the communities in which they are playing."

Between 1993 and 2004, the annual Boston Red Sox Children's Hospital Celebrity Classic, a golf tournament held in February, raised just under $3 million to fund capital projects at Children's Hospital of Southwest Florida, according to MacDonald. The Twins, meanwhile, have a newer golf tournament, now in its seventh year, that raises money for adult cancer care. It brought in close to $40,000 last year. MacDonald says the teams support the foundation through other charitable efforts, such as an annual dinner with Red Sox players on the field at their ballpark and a Twins luncheon and ball-signing session.

The community involvement goes beyond fund-raising. Starting in January, Twins players and coaches conduct free baseball clinics for local youths. "Those are things the Twins don't have to do, but they're trying to build a new generation of baseball fans," says Mielke. "They reach out in a non-financial way and touch the lives of some of the kids in our community." Mielke considers this one of many valuable community benefits of spring training baseball that can't be quantified. "It has a huge impact on the quality life," he says.

Big League Marketing

From a development perspective, there's also a major marketing advantage to hosting a team-or, better yet, two. "Having pro teams in your community brings a credibility that other places can't boast," says Mielke. The big leaguers may play here for just a few months, but the cachet remains year-round, as do the Major League-quality ball fields.

"It's one of the best marketing tools when we're trying to win youth baseball tournaments," says Mielke. "We can tell people, 'Your 13-year-old is going to get to stand on the fields where the Boston Red Sox and the Minnesota Twins play.'" The county hosts dozens of baseball events each year, bringing many more visitors to the area.

Stephenson of the Red Sox also sees an immeasurable value in the bond between the teams and their adoptive Florida home. "If you ever come out to a game, you almost feel like you're in New England sometimes," he says. "To me, it's hard to put a price tag on people going back, not just to Boston but all over the country, with a shirt that says 'Fort Myers, Florida.'"

Baseball's spring training is not the only game in town. With last fall's debut of the Florida Flame, a Fort Myers-based franchise in the National Basketball Develop-ment League (NBDL), Lee County now boasts professional basketball, hockey, arena football and baseball teams at the minor league level.

In the Florida State League, the Minnesota Twins' class-A minor league affiliate, the Fort Myers Miracle, plays a 140-game season that starts in April right after spring training ends. The Miracle's 13-year affiliation with the Twins-extended last year for four more-has helped the team build a loyal fan base. "Two-thirds of the Twins were here with us at some point," says broadcasting manager Sean Aronson. "In the '03 season we had four players who were wearing Twins uniforms last year. That's what our fans get a real kick out of."

The Miracle plays 70 home games at Hammond Stadium, the Twins' spring training facility; and the team led the league in attendance in 2002 and 2003. Four of the past six years, the Miracle has drawn more than 100,000 fans.

Ice hockey has also found a strong following in Southwest Florida. The Florida Everblades led the ECHL (formerly East Coast Hockey League) in attendance the last four seasons, according to team president and general manager Craig Brush. Since debuting in November 1998, the team has averaged more than 6,000 fans per game at 7,181-seat Germain Arena in Estero. Those fans aren't all refugees from the North who miss the hockey back home, either. Brush says that about half of the team's 4,000-plus season ticket-holders are locals who didn't grow up watching the sport regularly. He adds that season ticket sales are split pretty evenly between businesses and individuals. The Everblades reached the championship playoff last season, but lost.