Virus throws fans a curve, but Pirate City forges on
BRADENTON, Fla. — Jason Lemley sported an ear-to-ear smile as he peered through the outfield fence at Pirate City one sunny day last week, trying to catch a glimpse of his favorite team’s first full-squad workout of spring training.
Outside the fence was as close as the Lemleys could get to Pirate City asa result of COVID-19 restrictions. But as Mr. Lemley’s children — 7year-old Lawson and 11-year-old Emerson — chased home run balls during batting practice, the resourcefulness of the family from Lexington, N.C., allowed them to soak up the sights and sounds of summerin late winter.
And while the ongoing pandemic has capped game at-tendance at 25% and kept fans like the Lemleys out of Pirate City, their ambitious approach to spring training mirrors that of people for whom the yearly ritual is more than just a vacation.
It is big business, with the purchases made inside and outside of Bradenton’s LECOM Park injecting nearly $40 million into the local economy during a normal year.
“A little bit is better than none,” Bradenton Mayor Gene Brown said. “I think it will give people an opportunity to come to Bradenton, hopefully enjoy spring training and spend their money here.”
The lucky 25% who get into LECOM Park to watch the Pirates play will see a stripped-down product, with games potentially shortened because of limited travel rosters, only select food and drink options offered and players encouraged to pass on signing autographs.
But as baseball lovers like Mr. Lemley will tell you, there’s only so much that COVID-19 can stop.
“It’s a lot better here than the weather at home,” Mr. Lemley, 42, an assistant principal who used to coach high school baseball, said with a laugh. “We weren’t sure what the experience would look like, but at least we get to come out here and watch some baseball.”
The situation at LECOM will be markedly different from past years. Fans will sit in two- and four-person pods 6 feet apart, and everyone must wear masks. Face-toface interaction with players will be nonexistent, while attendance will be limited to about 2,100 for the ballpark formerly known as McKechnie Field.
Yet with Bradenton set to miss a sizable chunk of that important annual revenue, Mr. Brown and others said the excitement remains. And instead of complaining, those impacted by spring training would rather focus on the 25% gained than the 75% they could potentially lose.
“Obviously, whenever you cut out a portion of people, there’s going to be some impact,” Mr. Brown said. “Fans won’t all be able to go to the games, but hopefully they’ll still be coming to our town and spending dollars here. Our downtown merchants are excited. Our hotels are excited. Something is better than nothing. It will affect us, but I think it will still be a positive.”
‘Better than most’
The relationship between the Pirates and the Bradenton area remains as important as ever. The city has served as the club’s spring training home for 53 years.
LECOM Park is the oldest spring training ballpark still hosting games. Only the Tigers, who began training in Lakeland in 1934, have been in a Florida city longer.
About a third of the fans who attend Pirates spring games here are from Pennsylvania, according to a 2016 economic impact study conducted for the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. The 103,742 fans who attended 15 home games that year contributed to a total economic impact of nearly $36.5 million.
That number has since ticked up to near $40 million, said Elliott Falcione, the bureau’s executive director.
With games starting Sunday and the Pirates’ home opener Tuesday against the Tigers, Bradenton is understandably excited to turn that economic spigot on again.
“Spring training is paramount for Bradenton,” Mr. Brown said. “There are simply no words to say how great this is for our town.”
“We’ll be thrilled to have 25% capacity at LECOM Park,” said Jacki Dezelski, president and CEO of the Manatee Chamber of Commerce. Ms. Dezelski’s husband, Mike, grew up in Mt. Lebanon and was a batboy for the Pirates in the early 1990s.
As for the looming 75% shortfall in attendance, Ms. Dezelski said there will be a pinch, but Bradenton is hardly alone in that regard.
“Every major league spring training will feel the same effects,” she said. “However, I believe that while we may not be able to make up all that lost revenue, I think the optimism, goodwill and the ability to still celebrate spring training in Bradenton will be enough to make up the difference this year.”
As the president and CEO of Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, Rick Piccolo knows all about that sort of guarded optimism.
Airport traffic dropped 37% in 2020, with 1,236,986 passengers using the facility down from 1,966,950 in 2019. Meanwhile, according to the U.S Department of Transportation, the national average was a 60.1% year-overyear drop in terms of overall passengers served — 69.5 million.
Mr. Piccolo has seen business bounce back lately, with the airport enjoying a 12% uptick in traffic in December and a 6% increase in January. Other outdoor activities that keep the tourism industry afloat here — beaches, fishing, boating and golf — continue to be a draw.
“As an airport, we’ve done much better than most,” said Mr. Piccolo, who pointed out that the airport saw its traffic increase by a record 53% in February 2020, making it one of the fastest-growing airports in the country before the pandemic hit.
Although it’s often tough to differentiate spring training travelers from northerners wanting to trade snow for sandy beaches, Mr. Piccolo said he hopes having some fans will continue the airport’s rebound.
“We’re happy that it’s opening up some for spring training,” he said. “Having it open again, even at 25%, is good. It will bring fans down, which certainly helps the airport.
“Hopefully spring training will help that market to grow, and as the year goes on, things will get more and more robust. We’d love to see it at full capacity and everything back to normal, but it’s obviously a little early for that.”
In this together
Bradenton isn’t the only place that hosts spring training in this part of Florida. Sarasota County, which is south of Bradenton, welcomes two teams — the Baltimore Orioles in the city of Sarasota and the Atlanta Braves in North Port.
As president of Visit Sarasota, Virginia Haley said spring training baseball is “really central to what people want coming to Florida this time of year” and that “the game of summer just lifts peoples’ spirits.”
It also boosts the coffers of cities hosting teams, with fans spending money at hotels, restaurants and other businesses. According to a study the Orioles presented to Sarasota earlier this year, spring training attendees spent more than $22.3 million in Sarasota County last year.
“I’m just so grateful as a fan and a tourism official that they figured out a way to make it work,” Ms. Haley said. “Certainly it’s better than no fans. Tickets are harder to get, so that may mean people spend more time on the beaches, shopping and dining out. I think it will be a win-win for baseball and the community.”
Ms. Haley said she’s counting on spring trainingrelated travel to help make up a sizable gap in businessrelated trips into Sarasota.
Because of the pandemic, Ms. Haley said she’s seen about an 80% drop in people traveling for work, though the number of vacationers and people here for leisure — obviously including spring training — has gone up by 7% since January 2020.
And with fans set to enjoy plenty of extra space during spring training games at Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota, LECOM Park and others, Ms. Haley said it wasn’t hard to find another positive in allowing a limited number of fans back into ballparks.
“I’ve always had tickets to Ed Smith Stadium, and I’m thinking, ‘No one is going to be spilling their Cokes and popcorn on me,’ ” she said with a laugh. “You have to look at the good part.”
‘A serene setting’
While the Lemleys were steadfast in their desire to see spring training, the uncertainty of whether it would even happen — MLB announced a revised schedule on Feb. 12 — caused several to change their plans.
Ed Hurley, a Brookline resident and Pittsburgh firefighter, is a lifelong baseball/Pirates fan and has made several trips to spring training.
“Nothing beats leaving Pittsburgh in February or March, even if the Pirates aren’t playing very well,” Mr. Hurley said. “It’s nice to sit in the sun, enjoy everything with the kids and create some memories for them.”
Mr. Hurley monitored the situation from afar and originally planned to keep his family home. But he had a last-minute change of heart, booked a trip Thursday and will arrive in Bradenton on Sunday.
“Leaving Sunday with the whole family,” Mr. Hurley wrote in a text message, talking about his three kids under the age of 6. “Eighty-two and sunny. First week of March. How could I pass that up?”
Morgan Hardesty will undoubtedly be a little envious. He grew up in a baseball-obsessed family in Grove City. As he described it, “As a family, we didn’t really take vacations. We played baseball.”
For the past five years, Mr. Hardesty and some of his high school buddies have made the pilgrimage to spring training, often arriving on a Thursday and catching four games before flying home early the next week.
Mr. Hardesty considered a return trip this year. But with a Christmas cancellation deadline on the Airbnb he and his friends tried to book, plus other issues such as potential quarantines upon returning, the group decided to punt on the trip.
“We’re all bummed we won’t make it down this year,” said Mr. Hardesty, who now lives in Seven Fields. “Besides the great time with friends, I love watching the behind-thescenes of spring training. Now I’m stuck in snowingand-cold Pittsburgh with my MLB.TV subscription, anxiously awaiting warm weather and baseball.”
Seated on a portable stool back at Pirate City with Olivia, his 8-year-old American bulldog, Eddie Alicea, a 61-year-old retiree, watched the same rounds of batting practice as Mr. Lemley and his kids.
For Mr. Alicea, a Bridgeport, Conn., native who grew up idolizing Roberto Clemente and moved here about five years ago, it would be hard to envision a spring without the Pirates — even if he has to watch things from a distance.
“I wish I could be inside, but it is what it is because of COVID,” Mr. Alicea said. “I like coming out here. It’s a serene setting. Basically all you hear is the crack of the bat and some of the players talking. To me, it’s calming.”
Mr. Lemley — who is trying to visit all 30 MLB stadiums — wouldn’t disagree.
He and his wife, Ashley, would drive from North Carolina to Pittsburgh on dates. They fell in love with PNC Park and found Pittsburgh to be tremendously accessible.
“The tickets are usually easy to get, and the people of Pittsburgh are such nice people,” he said.
Two years ago, for Labor Day weekend, the family brought Lawson to his first game at PNC Park. He wore the full uniform of his first organized baseball team — the Pirates.
As the sun rose high in the sky last week, Lawson broke a sweat while chasing after those home run balls.
Each one brought more joy than the next, the type of memorable experience that shoves finances or the impact of a pandemic into the background for a few minutes.
“I’m just glad they’re enjoying it,” Mr. Lemley said as Lawson handed him another ball. “Guess we’re going to have plenty of batting practice balls back at the house.”