Pirates to allow fans at LECOM Park

Elliott Falcione had been patiently waiting for the news that broke Monday afternoon, that the Pirates and LECOM Park in Bradenton, Fla., will indeed play host to a small group of socially distanced fans for spring training games starting later this month.

For Falcione, who’s the executive director of the Bradenton Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, it means a (partial) return to normalcy and boost to local businesses. While LECOM Park (capacity: 8,500) won’t be full, the hope is to reach 25% or about 2,125 fans.

“We’re excited to see spring training come back to our beautiful community,” Falcione said. “We hope that it’s with a small percentage of Pittsburghers who can come down and enjoy not only Pirate baseball, but the beautiful attributes that we offer.”

Spring training season ticket holders and corporate partners will have the first crack at purchasing tickets, starting with an online presale at 10 a.m. Wednesday and running through Sunday.

The season ticket holders participating in the exclusive presale can choose their seat location for each individual game through their MyTix account on Pirates.com. Unsold tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m Feb. 15. You can purchase them at Pirates.com/springtraining or by calling 877-8932827.

Spring training games are big business when it comes to the Bradenton economy. Falcione said they can generate a little under $40 million over a six-week period.

“It also really helps brand our community as a place for professionals to train and play,” he said. “We have a great partnership with the Pittsburgh Pirates that actually gives us brand awareness throughout the year in the Pittsburgh metro area.”

The Pirates will play host to the Atlanta Braves Feb. 28 for their spring training home opener, which will be one of 17 games Pittsburgh plays at LECOM Park this spring.

Tickets will be sold in seating pod allotments of two and four per transaction, according to a release issued by the team. All pods will be at least 6 feet apart.

Those attending games must wear masks at all times (unless eating or drinking) and observe a new bag policy; only medical and diaper bags will be permitted.

Workouts at Pirate City be closed to the public. Pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report in two weeks, although there has been some chatter about potentially bumping the 2021 season back a month.

According to a May 2016 study prepared by Research Data Services, Inc. for the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Convention Bureau — the most recent set of data available — 103,742 fans attended the Pirates’ 15 home spring training games that year.

Of the non-Manatee County attendees, 27.8% came from other Florida counties, 71.3% came from other states, including 33.4% from Pennsylvania, and just 0.9% from other countries.