What's Next for City of Palms Park and Fort Myers Spring Training?

The stadium doesn't gleam in the sunlight as it once did. Air plants grow from cracks in the exterior, years of little use and minimal maintenance have made it a relic. Browning its once pampered grass. But there was a time the city of Fort Myers needed a new ballpark to attract a spring training team. After Kansas City left Terry Park. Glenn Miller is a former News-Press sportswriter. The twins will came here in 91 to what's now Lee Health Sports Complex. The Royals last year was 87 here. So 88, 89, 90. We had no team Lee County for spring training. Then four years later, we got to this rarely seen home. Video courtesy of the Southwest Florida Historical Society shows construction of City of Palms Park with former Mayor Wilbur Smith leading the cause. Fort Myers made an agreement with the Boston Red Sox to move to the stadium. The city issued $24.7 million in bonds to build the park. Today's cost probably would be ten times that, if not more. Opening day was March 5th, 1993. Fans recall the feeling at City of Palms to go all the way today, and certainly Schilling may even enjoy doing that, even though it's spring training. It was small. It was friendly. It was cozy. You met some great people at the ballpark and it just the atmosphere was just perfect. During their time training at Palms Parks, the Red Sox finally overcame the curse of the Bambino Babe Ruth. This team won the World Series in 2004, Boston's first title in a long 86 years. Spring training games here often were dramatic, and the star players, some of the best to write, hit well. Michaels turns and looks as it leaves. Big Papi David Ortiz blasted home run off the top of the batter's eye. You go stand at home plate in a ballpark. You can't imagine somebody could do that. But David Ortiz did. No more Garciaparra. Great shortstop Pedro Martinez. The Red Sox Nation included Stephen King, the famous horror fiction author. King was a regular at City of Palms, often watching from the press box. Very pleasant fellow. Very amiable. No hint of, Hey, I'm famous. Just chat with you about, Hey, you had a Red Sox lock or whatever. In time, though, the Red Sox grew frustrated with the fact that the practice fields and minor league complex were two miles away from the stadium. So the Red Sox moved to JetBlue Park outside the city limits. That was 14 spring trainings ago. JetBlue has thousands more seats than the old place, and the practice fields are right on the property for City of Palms. Fort Myers tried to attract other teams, other uses. Those efforts failed. To smaller space, the team said. Too much cost to remodel and fix up the stadium. Some fans still miss that City of Palms experience. I just like the feeling, the the the homebody ness of the of the old ballpark. Everything seemed a little bit closer. Everybody kind of knew everybody. People had worked there for years and years and years. I liked that you could park in someone's backyard and give them $5 to park. Decades ago, Frank Sinatra sang about a park that, like City of Palms, was abandoned. And, there used to be a ball park. Sometimes we feel about things like stadiums as we would about people. So what do you feel about this old park? It's a melancholy moment. This was a magical place. It was an old fashioned ballpark with a modern setting. It was. It's sad to see. With photographer Joe Lyshon for WGCU news, I'm Mike Walcher. Yes, there used to be a ball park right here. With more on the baseball connection in Southwest Florida, we are joined by Jeff Mulcahy, the executive director of the Lee County Sports Development Program. And you've been in this role for at least 20 years in Lee County. I have, I have it's been a phenomenal 20 years for me. And to see the growth of our sports product in our destination with all of the partnerships that we've built and, and really, elevating the brand of, of Lee County and, and Fort Myers to the world has been fun. And it is working. A nearly a quarter of a million of fans, came down to our area for both the Red Sox and the twins and Lee County. Do you expect a similar turnout or even better this year? I do, I hope that it's a it's a better turnout. I think people are excited about baseball and did really well with the World Series. With, several different countries being represented. You know, a lot of spring training has to do with the weather in Minnesota and Boston. We all know what's happening today. And this weekend up in New England area with the nor'easter. So I think the the harder the weathers are up north, the busier our spring training gets. Because, families are just looking for a getaway. They just they may not be diehard baseball fans, but they just had they've got to get out of the cold. And this is a great excuse to do that 100%. And in addition to the wonderful weather that we have, what else do you think is contributing to the rise in attendance at baseball games? It seems like it's just rising in popularity. Yeah, I think our destination one has got two great teams. They're very passionate fan bases. Certainly the Red Sox coming out of the Boston area and then Minnesota, you know, they've always been historically the top two of the top four teams in all of Grapefruit League every single year. So I think we're just incredibly lucky to have such great partnerships with with teams that play in the North and have much colder climates this time of year. And then I think there's no secret that baseball is, is is rising in popularity. I think, Commissioner Manfred has put some rules in play that make the game a little funner to watch. With the pitch clocks this year, they're going to the, the automatic strike zone. And so I think it's bringing younger fans to the game, which there was always a concern about. Hey, how do we continue to grow the fan base of the younger level and by making the game faster and more exciting to watch? I think that they're doing a good job with that. And don't forget great concessions. Those are so, so important, right? Yeah. So you go to the ballparks and the way it is now is you used to sit in your seat for 7 or 8 innings. That was the study done. And now people roam the ballparks and they don't want to sit in their seat all 7 or 8 innings. So both teams have done a great job of putting these little hidden gems of maybe a product that you can only get in Minnesota over in this corner of the ballpark or or, Fenway Frank over here that you have to get up and go find it. And so it encourages roaming around and exploring the ballparks. And I think that's fun. Now, unfortunately, there is a lot of talk of a high probability of a strike looming or what are any contingency plans that you might have for Lee County if that would happen? Well, it's hard to put contingency plans in place when you don't have a crystal ball and see what's going to unfold. Right. So, the collective bargaining agreement is, is probably going to start taking place, in, in December. And so from December to March, who knows how much progress they're going to make. And so we do have a lot of different things happening right now during spring training in Lee County. We just had University of Missouri, Division one baseball program was here playing a series of games. On two different weekends, we can lean harder into our college baseball product. Our Parks and rec department runs a college spring break tournament called the Jean Cusick Classic, and we can move that from some of our older facilities into these newer venues. If there's no spring training. And then we also have the Kingdom of Netherlands right now is in Lee County, and they are practicing with their national team to get ready, warming up for the world Baseball Classic. So, we are really leaning into international baseball, with the LA Olympic Games, Summer games in 2028, we have really promoted that. Lee County is a great place for international baseball teams to come train, and the Netherlands is our first example of that. That's fantastic. Yeah. Now, I do want to ask you, the former home of, of the Red Sox, the City of Palms Park in downtown Fort Myers. What is the the status of that? Is that salvageable? So that is unknown to us. We, you know, Lee County, turn that facility back over to the city of Fort Myers a few years ago. And they're planning those plans are completely unknown to us. You know, I know they were negotiating for a soccer organization to come in and take that over, but I'm not sure what their current plans are right now. Well, we do want to know, is there a possibility bringing a third team to Southwest Florida? You know, people ask that a lot. We tried to to to shop City of Palms Park, you know, a long time ago. And and that facility being the stadium separate from the spring training venue in the minor league complex, was just a really, really almost a mountain that you can't, can't get to the top of. And, so with the way, all the contracts are in Major League Baseball that all the contracts are currently, I don't see anybody expiring that would be available for us to even talk to right now. And I think we're really happy with the state of our two teams and those facilities need constant upgrades and upkeep. So the budget that we have available is really dedicated to those two teams. So I don't think you'll see a third team here in in a long time. Dare to dream. But what you're doing now is obviously working. We have tons of super happy fans. We had a great weekend of baseball, lots of great weekend, weather as well. So that's the number one. Attraction. Correct? It is, it is. The more sunshine we have. And again, if we've got some colder weather next couple days, but it'll go away soon. And, we always like to tell. And one of the first things I hear on the PA announcement when I go into the ballpark is they compare the weather that we're at in Southwest Florida to whatever weather is at home, and it's always a pretty big difference. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Next time you're bringing hot dogs and popcorn, I'll bring for our interview. I absolutely will bring some baseball. All right. Thank you so much and thanks for joining us and sharing all your expertise. Thank you so much.