SARASOTA, Fla. — A few months ago, a lockout threatened to delay the start of the Major League Baseball season. But after 99 days, owners and the player's association reached an agreement that lead to a very short spring training season.
What would normally have been six weeks of training games in locations across Florida and Arizona was cut to less than four. However, those few weeks still made an impact on several Florida counties.
The new MLB season started Thursday afternoon, only a few days after fans ceased to pack the stands in small towns and cities for spring training.
Spring training was a unique opportunity for many small communities to get a taste of what it was like to be neighbors with a major sports franchise from the big cities. Sarasota and Manatee Counties got their share of the fanfare and the windfall that comes with it.
The Baltimore Orioles have held spring training in Sarasota since 2015 and they've brought throngs of fans along with them.
So have the other teams like the Atlanta Braves, who trained in North Port, and the Pittsburgh Pirates, who trained in Bradenton.
Many of the fans either flew in frequently for those games or spent the entire duration of the season in the area. While they were here, those fans also spent millions of dollars to keep up with their favorite teams, according to team and county officials.
"The fact that we got nine home games in at both Ed Smith Stadium and the Cool Today Park made it a very good spring training in light of what we were looking at," said Pat Calhoun, Sarasota County Franchise liaison.
"I think that everybody wins with any kind of sports tournament, with tourism and especially a baseball," said Jennifer Grondahl, senior vice president, community development and communications for the Baltimore Orioles.
According to an annual economic report from the Sarasota County Government, since 2015, the Orioles have generated around $545 million for the state of Florida.
With last season's 14 Spring Training games at Ed Smith Stadium, the team's executives said the team has helped pull in $27 million to the county alone.
It's a similar case in Manatee County where this shorter season's financial windfall for the local economy is estimated at between $20-25 million. Team officials said they make marketing spring training games and events to their fans a priority because of the benefits to their host community.
"They're going to the local restaurants, they're shopping in the small businesses that are located downtown or wherever, you know they are staying at hotels and going to bars and everything is affected by spring training," said Grondahl.
"I am just thankful that we got some games in for Spring Training this year and look forward to next year being a spring training that is normal," said Calhoun.
The Orioles have played a total of 102 home games at the Ed Smith Stadium since the franchise moved its spring training from Fort Lauderdale to Sarasota. Over the course of that time, more than 1 million fans have attended those games, according to team officials. They also hope with the pandemic easing up, many more would make plans to experience and be a part of spring training next season.