It’s that time again, Spring Training is just days aways from starting in the valley!
Spring Training is truly a great time for baseball fans in Arizona. The Cactus League makes its home here in February and March. This year, pitchers and catchers are reporting (depending on the team) as early as February 9th with the rest of the team reporting beginning February 19th.
It’s also a great revenue boom for Phoenix and surrounding cities because there will be an expected 2 million attendees for the 15 teams that belong to the Cactus League, and they will play 200 games over 34 days! The first games are scheduled to start February 22nd. In 2023, the teams drew 1.5 million fans to 216 games and spending by visitors created 5893 annual jobs paying $271.9 million. The study (can be found at AZ Central August 25, 2023 – Spring Training Season brought $418M to state’s economy in 2023)also found spring training directly generated $36.6 million in taxes; generated $28.4 million for the state and $8.2 million for local governments. So, you can see that Spring Training is a BIG deal!
It’s not just visitors that enjoy spring training. Locals do too! The study I referred to says that the median Cactus League visitor attends an average of 3 games. That would be my family this year! Ticket prices for this year average around $69.09 with some tickets as low as $6.00!
That is the cool thing about Cactus League play, if you enjoy the sun and want to take your blanket and enjoy the games from the grass, you can do that. Or you can grab a seat in the stands and get really close to the field for reasonable prices and say hi to your favorite players. You might even catch a ball!
I’ll list the 10 ball parks where spring training action can be found. All of the parks are nice with a homey feeling. I’ve visited 8 of the 10 – I won’t say which one is my favorite -😊 but I hope that you will have the chance to catch a game or 3 this year!
Follow this link for 2024 schedule and ticket information:
https://www.visitarizona.com/experiences/sports/springtraining/
- Camelback Ranch, Glendale Az – Chicago White Sox & LA Dodgers
- Goodyear Ball Park – Goodyear Az – Cincinnati Reds & Cleveland Guardians
- American Family Fields, Phoenix Az – Milwaukee Brewers
- Hohokam Stadium – Mesa AZ – Oakland Athletics
- Peoria Sports Complex, Peoria Az – San Diego Padres & Seattle Mariners
- Salt River Fields, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community near Scottsdale Az – Arizona Diamondbacks & Colorado Rockies
- Scottsdale Stadium, Scottsdale Az – San Francisco Giants
- Sloan Park, Mesa Az – Chicago Cubs
- Surprise Stadium, Surprise Az – Kansas City Royals & Texas Rangers
- Tempe Diablo Stadium, Tempe,Az – Los Angeles Angels
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