Surprise Stadium

Arizona is known for having a lot of "propositions" on its ballots on election day.  Well, on November 7, 2000, the voters of Maricopa County were asked to vote on Proposition 302.  Local residents knew that this ballot initiative was mostly to determine the fate of a new football stadium for the NFL Cardinals.  What many residents didn't realize was that the proposition also included funding for a new Spring Training complex for the town of Surprise.

Well, by a very narrow margin, the proposition passed.  It raised hotel and car-rental taxes to generate the revenue for the football facility and the baseball complex.  And the city of Surprise, which is just to the west of Peoria (the home of a Spring Training complex for the Mariners and Padres), already had tenants lined up to spend their springs there.  That's because a week before the election, the Royals and Rangers announced that they had decided to leave Florida to come to Surprise should the voters pass Prop 302.  The Royals had spent the last 14 years training near Haines City, and the Rangers had trained in the-not-so-great-vacation-destination of Port Charlotte for the same length of time. 

KC and Texas started sharing the state-of-the-art complex in the spring of 2003.  In addition to the 10,500-seat Surprise Stadium at its center (a la Peoria), each team has six full practice fields, plus an additional infield-only field, and its own office space. 

The move continued the trend of Major League teams moving their Spring Training Headquarters from Florida to Arizona, as the Rangers and Royals joined the White Sox in the migration west.  No one should blame the Rangers, though, since both the town of Port Charlotte and the ballpark where they played their exhibition games was at the absolute bottom of the Sunshine State heap (although right now everything is being renovated, as the Tampa Bay Rays move their spring operations there in 2009)!  To be fair, Haines City wasn't much better.

Here, though, the Royals and Rangers share a fabulous ballpark and complex. The spacious stadium features excellent food and an excellent souvenir store. Just because Surprise is a little farther outside Phoenix than some of the other spring parks, don't skip coming here! It's worth the drive! By the way, the photo above was taken at an exhibition game in 2008, where (no surprise -- yes, pun intended!) the weather was the same as at every game I've ever attended here: absolutely beautiful!

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