by Ray Keating
News
DisneyBizJournal.com
December 21, 2022
It might be the first day of winter, but there’s never a bad time to talk baseball. And baseball news is in the air relating to Walt Disney World.
The Tampa Bay Rays have announced that due to damage related to Hurricane Ian, the Charlotte Sports Park complex will not be available for Spring Training 2023. As a result, the team will open spring training at Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.
Pitchers and catchers are set to report for the Rays on February 14, as well as early arrivals scheduled for February 6. Spring training workouts will take place at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, along with the first spring training game on February 28.
The Major League Spring Training camp will be at Disney World until March 1, after which it will be moved to the Rays regular season stadium, Tropicana Field.
However, the Rays Minor League Spring Training camp will remain at the ESPN complex.
The Rays and Charlotte County plan to move the Rays Spring Training activities back to the Charlotte Sports Park complex in 2024.
The Disney complex had served as the Spring Training home of the Atlanta Braves for 22 seasons, most recently in 2019. For good measure, the Rays have played there in the past, as noted in the team’s statement: “The Rays also have history at ‘The Stadium,’ formerly known as Champion Stadium. Tampa Bay previously hosted six regular-season games at the Disney ballpark, sweeping a series against the Rangers in May 2007 then winning three games against the Blue Jays in April 2008.”
Faron Kelley, vice president of Disney Sports, said, “We are thrilled to be bringing Major League Baseball back to Walt Disney World Resort. We’re always looking for top-tier events, like the Rays’ Spring Training, for our guests to enjoy at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.”
On a personal note, as a baseball fan who has absolutely no appreciation for the warehouse-like, soulless Tropicana Field, it’s a shame that the Rays full Spring Training schedule in 2023 won’t be played at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.
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Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com; and author of the Pastor Stephen Grant thrillers and mysteries, and the Alliance of Saint Michael novels; and assorted nonfiction books. Have Ray Keating speak your group, business, school, church, or organization. Email him at raykeating@keatingreports.com.
The views expressed here are his own – after all, no one else should be held responsible for this stuff, right?
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• The Pastor Stephen Grant thrillers and mysteries. The latest in the series is Persecution: A Pastor Stephen Grant Novel. Get the signed books here, or paperbacks and Kindle editions right here.
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