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.

More Fun and Games

Florida Gulf Coast University’s women’s team went 26-5 last year.

If you have time or energy left, there’s even more sports. Florida Gulf Coast University placed four teams in the top 100 of NCAA Division 1 competition last year, led by the women’s basketball team’s 26-5 run.

Cape Coral will host the 2010 Florida Senior games championships in December and is planning a multimillion-dollar National Swimming Center it hopes to open in 2012.

And pickleball, a miniaturized form of tennis that’s played over a net on a badminton-sized court with wooden paddles and small wiffle balls, is booming on public courts and racquet clubs.

Hockeytown FLA

The Everblades draw 4,000 to 5,000 fans a game. [Photo: allarsonphoto.com]

Hockey is a more recent and surprising success story. The Everblades draw 4,000 to 5,000 fans a game. Regardless of how well the Blades do this season, Lee County skates hard all year long in Pee Wee, youth junior and adults leagues of men and women. Nobody knows how many locals play hockey, but they fill two rinks, the off-hours at Germain Arena and the city-owned Skatium, and support three hockey shops.

Off the ice, inline skaters have four surfaces for their own teams and games.