Eyebrow-raising discovery: fans prefer Florida over Arizona

 Text and photos by JOE MOCK
This appeared in the USA TODAY 2025 Spring Training Preview. Used by permission. All right reserved.

As we turn our attention to the research done by InMoment on the 13 spring training ballparks in Florida, there is an inescapable finding: they outscore their Arizona counterparts by a significant margin.

Consider this: when InMoment calculates a grand total for each venue based on the sum of the four categories they researched (fan experience, facility, family friendliness, and food & drink), the average score for a Florida park is double the average for the Cactus League.

Further, there are three Grapefruit League parks ranked higher than any Arizona park, and the lowest Florida park scored higher than the bottom five in the Grand Canyon State.

This is a surprising result when you consider that all ten spring-training complexes in Arizona are in the same metropolitan area (Phoenix), while Florida’s 13 venues are spread across the state on two different coasts. Cactus League fans are never more than an hour from the farthest complex, making it easy to visit morning practices at one facility, attend an afternoon exhibition at another, and take in a night game at a third — all in the same day. You’ll even have time to stop for dinner in between.

In Florida, if you attend a Twins or Red Sox exhibition in Fort Myers, you’d find yourself two-and-a-half hours from the Tigers in Lakeland or Mets in Port St. Lucie – and that’s if you encounter zero traffic jams. You’re also constantly risking a rain delay from a pop-up thunderstorm. Meanwhile two time zones away in the Cactus League, weather in March is almost always ideal.

So why the preference for Florida spring training?

Graham Knight operates the Spring Training Connection website and has written two books on the ballparks in the Cactus League and Grapefruit League. “It’s startling the research shows that fans prefer Florida,” he says. “I love Florida spring training, but it’s a lot better in Arizona.”

He proposes that you have to consider the reason why a fan is making the trek to watch exhibition games. “If it’s just for baseball, then Arizona is better. But if you are going as part of a family vacation, then the beaches and theme parks of the Sunshine State make it more appealing.”

And, he adds, you have to take into account where your favorite team trains. If you’re a die-hard Yankees fan, then you probably aren’t setting foot in Arizona unless there’s the rare inter-league series between the Bronx Bombers and the Diamondbacks. No, you’re heading to George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa every March.

To be sure, some of the top venues in the sport are in Florida. The top park in InMoment’s rankings is BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, spring home of the Philadelphia Phillies. It’s followed by the Minnesota Twins’ Lee Health Sports Complex in Fort Myers and CoolToday Park in North Port, home of the Atlanta Braves.

“BayCare Ballpark raised the bar for ballpark standards in the Grapefruit League when it opened two decades ago, and it still hasn’t been surpassed,” observes Knight. “It encompasses all that makes the parks in Arizona so crowd-pleasing and, thanks to its amenities, is a hip, fun place to spend an afternoon.

“It’s no surprise that Clearwater’s park perennially ranks so highly.”

So let’s see what all the fuss is about with Florida’s 13 springtime parks. Here is the ranking from InMoment’s data mining, both from this month and also seven years ago.

BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater (see photo)
Opened 2004
Spring home of the Philadelphia Phillies
2025 Florida ranking: 1^st
2018 ranking: 2^nd

It was clear from the research that this is the top-rated facility in all of spring training. It had the highest fan-experience and food-and-drink scores of all 23, and finished #2 in facility and family friendliness. It has it all.

Lee Health Sports Complex in Fort Myers
Opened 1991
Minnesota Twins
2025: 2^nd
2018: 6^th

A decade ago, $48.5 million in improvements were made here, and the metamorphosis was stunning. In particular, the complex “excels in player accessibility,” says Knight. “Between the stadium and its adjacent practice fields, there’s no better place in the Grapefruit League to enjoy pre-game proceedings. The intimacy that was long the ethos of spring training is still alive and well here.”

CoolToday Park in North Port
Opened 2019
Atlanta Braves
2025: 3^rd
2018: N/A

For years, the Braves trained at Disney World, but the bus rides to exhibitions got longer and longer as other MLB teams moved their winter operations out of Central Florida. A $125 million complex was carved out of the swampy woods of southwest Florida, and fans love it. Their food & beverage score was #2 of all 23 spring parks.

Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota
Opened 1989
Baltimore Orioles
2025: 4^th
2018: 1^st

After the Reds moved to Arizona in 2009, the drab facility had no tenant. Then a $31 million plan by the Orioles and the city of Sarasota transformed the park into a baseball paradise, with new concourses, landscaping and additional shade.

TD Ballpark in Dunedin (see photo)
Opened 1990
Toronto Blue Jays
2025: 5^th
2018: 10^th

This is the Blue Jays’ 36^th straight spring in this neighborhood ballpark, although they contemplated moving elsewhere in 2014 when the facilities had become subpar. Following a total of $102 million in improvements to the ballpark and their practice fields three miles away, this is now a modern showplace, causing its ranking to jump from #10 to #5.

LECOM Park in Bradenton (photo in upper part of this page)
Opened 1923
Pittsburgh Pirates
2025: 6^th
2018: 3^rd

You read that correctly: this park opened in 1923, making it one of the most historic in the U.S. Research showed satisfaction with family friendliness and fan experience in the quaint environment.

CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach
Opened 2017
Houston Astros and Washington Nationals
2025: 7^th
2018: 12^th

Possible refinements in the data-mining techniques elevated the ranking here, as it’s always been a nice facility. Before COVID shut the proceedings down, it was shaping up to be an interesting spring in 2020, as the two tenants had just faced off in the World Series the previous fall.

Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium in Jupiter
Opened 1998
Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals
2025: 8^th
2018: 7^th

A scant 11 miles from CACTI Park, the two spring-training camps are the only two two-team complexes in Florida. The Cards’ practice fields are beyond the ballpark’s center field, while the Marlins are beyond left field.

George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa
Opened 1996
New York Yankees
2025: 9^th
2018: 11^th

It didn’t score particularly high in any of the four subcategories, but the team does feature a lot of elements of their proud history. This park has been in the news lately, as the Tampa Bay Rays will play their regular-season games here while Tropicana Field is being repaired following Hurricane Milton.

Charlotte Sports Park in Port Charlotte
Opened 1987
Tampa Bay Rays
2025: 10^th
2018: 4^th

Speaking of the Rays and hurricanes, the team couldn’t conduct spring training here in 2023 following severe damage from Hurricane Ian. Normal operations resumed in 2024, but the facility’s ranking tumbled from 4^th to 10^th.

JetBlue Park in Fort Myers
Opened 2012
Boston Red Sox
2025: 11^th
2018: 9^th

A little puzzling that the ranking isn’t higher, considering the Sox bring the party atmosphere of Fenway’s Jersey Street to spring gamedays at the 106-acre Fenway South complex.

Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland
Opened 1966
Detroit Tigers
2025: 12^th
2018: 8^th

The Tigers have been here every spring since it opened in 1966. A $37 million facelift in 2017 gave the park an aviation theme, appropriate since it was built on a World War II airfield. A popular trivia question here is “Who was Joker Marchant?” As you’ll find on a faded plaque in his honor, he was the city’s Parks & Rec Director when the ballpark opened.

Clover Park in Port St. Lucie
Opened 1988
New York Mets
2025: 13th
2018: 5th

There have been plenty of name changes and renovations here, but it still ranks last. “Clover Park feels a lot more like Shea Stadium than Citi Field,” notes Knight. “The hulking concrete structure is a throwback to an era that wasn’t eye-pleasing. While the place has been greatly improved upon over the years, the overall experience doesn’t compare well to its peers, so it’s understandable why Mets fans might prefer seeing their team’s exhibitions on the road more than in Port St. Lucie.”

And while Clover Park might be the lowest ranked facility in Florida, remember it still outscored half of the ten parks in Arizona!