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Florida’s spring training is back. Has Tampa Bay tourism moved on?

People are still flocking to Florida, just not necessarily for baseball. For local businesses, that’s a mixed bag.
 
Dennis Lyons and his wife Carol Lyons, both of Ontario, Canada, walk past the entrance to TD Ballpark on March 8, before Major League Baseball and the players' union agreed to a labor deal that would start the season on time. "We generally include a few ballgames, but apparently that didn't work," Dennis said. "But at least the weather is nice."
Dennis Lyons and his wife Carol Lyons, both of Ontario, Canada, walk past the entrance to TD Ballpark on March 8, before Major League Baseball and the players' union agreed to a labor deal that would start the season on time. "We generally include a few ballgames, but apparently that didn't work," Dennis said. "But at least the weather is nice." [ CHRIS URSO | Times ]
Published March 11, 2022

A few steps out the door and a skip across the street, and Enio Pippo can be on the beach near his condo in Tamarindo, Costa Rica.

“Sunny, not a cloud in the sky, beautiful sunsets, nice breeze off the ocean,” Pippo said by phone from the patio. “It’s paradise.”

It’s also not where he hoped he’d be this week.

Pippo, a 55-year-old insurance broker from Toronto, had planned a nearly two-week road trip to Pinellas County for Blue Jays spring training in Dunedin. Three nights at the Innisbrook Golf Resort in Palm Harbor, another five in a condo on Clearwater Beach, and plenty of shopping, dining and baseball in between.

That was back in January, when it looked like spring training might start on time. Instead, games were canceled and players were locked out amid protracted bargaining with owners, quieting more than a half-dozen training sites around Tampa Bay. Only now, after players and owners reached an agreement Thursday, are ballparks starting to spring to life.

Pippo, who’s attended a handful of Blue Jays spring trainings over the years, decided the deposits weren’t worth the risk. So instead of dropping $6,000 or more on a Tampa Bay vacation, he and his wife changed course and flew to Costa Rica instead.

“This thing kept dragging, and I got sick of it,” he said. “As much as I love my baseball, I need hot weather, and I don’t need the hassles. That was it.”

Related: Romano: While baseball argues about billions, small towns lose their meager spring windfall

It’s been a recurring theme these last two years, the evaporation of sports-based revenue from Tampa Bay’s regional economy. In 2020, we lost the WWE’s WrestleMania due to the pandemic, and fans were locked out of the Rays’ World Series run and the Lightning’s Stanley Cup victory. Last year, the Buccaneers won a hometown Super Bowl with a restricted-capacity stadium and toned-down party scene.

Losing part of spring training for a third straight year — two thanks to COVID-19, and this year’s thanks to labor strife — is a little different.

For every fan like Pippo who changed travel plans, there now seems to be another tourist ready to take his place. While the lockout hurt some local businesses and seasonal workers — and it certainly mattered to fans — it also revealed just how little Tampa Bay relies on spring training tourism today, compared to generations past.

“When you look at the totality of travel during the month, just in Pinellas, spring training is just one portion of that,” said Steve Hayes, president and CEO of Visit St. Pete/Clearwater. “I think (visitors) are still coming. It’s just the primary reason of why they’re coming is not the same.”

George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa sits empty while the Yankees and other Major League Baseball teams continued to lock out players on March 8. [ ARIELLE BADER | Special to the Times ]

More than just spring training

No one pushed harder for spring training in Tampa Bay than former mayor Al Lang, “the man who introduced St. Petersburg, the Nice of Florida, to baseball,” the Philadelphia North American wrote in 1919.

It was Lang who lured the Phillies and St. Louis Browns to St. Petersburg in the 1910s, believing northern and midwestern tourists would not only follow their teams south every spring, but see picturesque photos of players in Florida in their hometown newspapers. Babe Ruth and the Yankees soon followed, and spring training has been held in Tampa Bay ever since.

Related: Remembering Al Lang, St. Petersburg's man of spring

In 2019 — the last full year of spring training — 637,434 fans attended spring home games in Tampa (the New York Yankees), Clearwater (Philadelphia Phillies), Dunedin (Blue Jays), Lakeland (Detroit Tigers), Bradenton (Pittsburgh Pirates) and Sarasota (Baltimore Orioles). Just a little farther south, the Rays drew another 71,438 in Port Charlotte. And in a truncated 2020, the Atlanta Braves moved to North Port, drawing 70,106.

But a lot can change in a century. Remove every one of those 2019 fans from the equation, and March would still be a signature month for Tampa Bay tourism.

It’s a major spring break month, and the busiest month of the year for passengers at Tampa International Airport. It’s typically when the region hosts major events like the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, the PGA’s Valspar Championship, the Florida Strawberry Festival and the Gasparilla art, music and film festivals. This year, Tampa has the SEC men’s basketball tournament and a new music festival headlined by Green Day at Raymond James Stadium, with about 20,000 fans expected per day.

Related: Get ready for a crowded Spring Break: Every Tampa Bay public school and USF have off

In March 2019, Hillsborough County hotels were 87.5 percent full on average, according to Visit Tampa Bay. During the first week of March, occupancy was at 85.1 percent, even topping 96 percent on March 5 — and that’s with 2,500 more rooms than three years ago.

“If they were to come for spring training, I don’t know where they would stay,” Visit Tampa Bay spokesperson Patrick Harrison said.

It’s a similar story in Pinellas. The average attendance during the first week of March was down slightly from 2019, but still peaked at more than 94 percent on March 5. And that’s with 2,100 more hotel rooms and average room rates up 30 percent.

“When you look at this year and certainly last year, you have a different traveler,” Hayes said. “Last year, folks felt like they could finally get away and travel. You had the vaccine that came out, people were getting vaccinated, the weather was perfect, it was all these things rolled up. So we had a different crowd that may not be singularly focused on just spring training.”

The trend may slightly predate the pandemic. Visit St. Pete/Clearwater regularly surveys visitors about how they spent their time in Tampa Bay. In 2018, 9.8 percent mentioned spring training. In 2019, that number dropped to 5.9 percent.

Related: 'A totally different city': How Tampa has changed since 2004 Stanley Cup win

During last year’s Super Bowl and this year’s Outback Bowl, Visit Tampa Bay used geotracking to study where out-of-town visitors went and spent money. The usual suspects were all there: Busch Gardens, the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, various points of interest along Tampa’s Riverwalk.

This weekend, those attractions all have their own things going on. Busch Gardens is kicking off its annual Food and Wine Festival and opening a new roller coaster, Iron Gwazi, to the public. Tampa’s “River O’ Green” St. Patrick’s Day festival will lure thousands to the Riverwalk on Sunday.

Even the casino, which draws most of its business from locals, tends to shrug off spring baseball.

“The casino logically sees a spike in business from mega events, like the Super Bowl, that attract large numbers of visitors from out of town,” said Hard Rock spokesperson Gary Bitner. “But the impact from regular sporting events is not that big.”

The box office at TD Ballpark, the spring training home of the Toronto Blue Jays, was still closed on March 8 in Dunedin. [ CHRIS URSO | Times ]

How much is baseball worth?

Over the past 15 years, state, county and city governments have steered more money toward spring training complex renovations: $26 million in Tampa, $30 million in Bradenton, $31 million in Sarasota, $40 million in Lakeland, $60 million in Dunedin, $70 million in Clearwater — all of it far more than teams paid in that span. Just this week, Florida legislators approved $35 million for a new baseball complex in Pasco County that officials hope could someday be a new spring training home for the Rays.

Boosters say the economic benefits of those projects outweigh the costs. Orioles event attendees, for example, spend $26 million each year, according to Visit Sarasota County, while the Phillies are worth $44 million a year to Clearwater, according to a 2019 city study. The Florida Sports Foundation, in a 2018 study, found that spring training generates a statewide economic impact of $687.1 million.

Related: Losing big sports events cost Tampa Bay some $360 million in economic impact

But “economic impact” is a notoriously squishy concept, one that economists often say is overstated or misinterpreted. Out-of-state spending does have an impact, because that’s all-new money to the region. But money spent by Florida residents, who make up the lion’s share of spring training attendees, is just as likely to have been shifted around and spent in other ways (say, purchasing tickets to a concert instead of a baseball game).

The state’s Spring Training Baseball Franchise Incentive provides qualifying teams and facilities with up to $500,000 annually for up to 30 years. In a 2021 study, the Office of Economic and Demographic Research determined it could chalk less than a quarter of spring training’s out-of-state visitors up to improvements funded by state incentives. The program’s estimated return on investment: 54 cents for every dollar spent.

Spring training boosters say the impact of having teams in town extends beyond the month of March. Dunedin commissioner Maureen “Moe” Freaney, the city’s Blue Jays liaison, said the team has invested nearly $50 million into TD Ballpark and their player development complex. They’re moving forward with plans to build a 68-room boutique hotel on the Dunedin Causeway.

“They’re committed to Dunedin, and that’s a powerful thing,” she said. “They’re a big employer. They’re a big sponsor of different community things. They work really closely with our Dunedin High School baseball team. So they’re a bigger player in the community than just spring training baseball. They’re doing things year-round here.”

Related: How much are the Phillies worth to Clearwater? The city's answer just changed

The lockout was disappointing, she said. But she’s convinced fans won’t stay bitter forever.

“When you have Red Tide, it’s a bummer, and people will figure out other things to do,” she said. “But there’s pent-up demand. And when Red Tide’s gone, they’re booming to be back at the beach again. And I think the same thing’s true with baseball. It’s been frustrating in some ways ... but I talk to people in town, and they’re chomping at the bit. As soon as baseball’s back, they’re ready.”

Tampa Bay Rays minor league players participate in a training drill during a workout session on March 2 at the Charlotte Sports Park in Port Charlotte. [ DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times ]

Short- and long-term changes

Spring training will feel different this year, with fewer games and open workouts due to the first half being canceled.

Major League Baseball and the players’ union recognized that the lockout was going to have some financial consequences at the local level. Both have announced $1 million funds to support seasonal and part-time stadium workers stuck without income this spring. Another player-backed group is offering $500,000 in grants to nonprofit partners impacted by the loss of revenue.

All Faiths Food Bank in Sarasota normally raises about $40,000 per year through a volunteer usher program at the Braves CoolToday Park in North Port.

“Every game that goes by is money lost for our food bank, and honestly to give to children in need,” said Denise Cotler, the bank’s chief development officer.

Related: MLB, players create $1 million relief funds for stadium, spring training workers

Marguerite’s Cafe and Catering near TD Ballpark in Dunedin opted to close on Mondays, with a noticeable drop-off on what would’ve been game days, said manager Randi Hirschmann. The catering side of the business is down at least 30 percent, with a chunk of that loss coming from the Blue Jays and Phillies themselves.

But other than that, “we’re busier now than we were in the past,” Hirschmann said.

“We have not really seen as much of an effect as I thought we would, because the Canadians have still come down, because they already had their vacations booked,” she said. “So we still are seeing quite a few Canadians; they’re just not going to the games.”

The other day, Amanda Payne, the president and CEO of Amplify Clearwater, took her visiting parents to Lenny’s Restaurant, a Phillies-fan hotspot near BayCare Ballpark.

“I saw so many Phillies hats and gear and T-shirts,” she said. “It struck me that people are still coming, and that’s probably because they booked trips a year ago. ... They’ve taken time off work, they’ve already invested the money. Why not come and go to the beach anyway?”

If spring training simply went away altogether, a lot of economic value would be lost, Payne said, from partnerships with local charities to players who own property and pay taxes here. And while it may seem hard to picture now, there’s no guarantee Tampa Bay will always be as appealing a tourist destination as it is today, adding long-term value to a reliable draw like spring training.

“As things continue to open and COVID-19 regulations are relaxed, Florida may not continue to be that top choice,” she said. “We hope that it is, but people’s desires to see other places sometimes change. To lose spring training altogether in our community would have an incredibly negative impact.”

Which is why businesspeople like Hirschmann are relieved baseball and the players found a way to salvage some of this year’s spring season.

“We can see the stadium right from the window,” she said. “I’m wrapped and ready if something happens.”