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Spring Games to Watch
Bases Loaded in Fort Myers
The Red Sox train at City of Palms Park in downtown Fort Myers. [Photo: Cecil Copeland/Cal Sport Media] |
March madness in Fort Myers isn’t about basketball. The city is one of only two Florida cities to host two Major League teams for spring training, the Minnesota Twins and the Boston Red Sox. (Jupiter is the other city.) There’s also the hard-hitting Florida Everblades hockey team.
That concentration of competition — not to mention lacrosse, soccer, track and field, croquet and pickleball (see "More Fun and Games" below) — makes this month a bonus sports destination for fans.
Boosters are parlaying the new interest in sports as a form of tourism for amateur and minor league sports.
The Boys of Spring
Today, Boston’s headquartered at a downtown stadium — and you’ll find the displaced Fenway crowd at the Hideaway Sports Bar; the Twins are based in Hammond Stadium south of town where players and fans hang out at Potts Sports Cafe. There’s more: The Tampa Bay Rays play in Port Charlotte an hour north.
Last year, the Fort Myers area hosted college club and youth baseball and softball competitions 170 days of the year, which put thousands of players and families in motels and restaurants as well as the stadiums.
