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Rays Hope New Spring Home Proves To Be A Hit

Tribune photo by MICHAEL SPOONEYBARGER

The team says 5,100 fixed seats have sold out for the entire Grapefruit League schedule.

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By MARC LANCASTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 15, 2009

Updated: 01/16/2009 01:04 am

PORT CHARLOTTE - The Tampa Bay Rays spring training experience as you – and the team – know, is about to change significantly.

With an all-in-one, dedicated facility to call their own at last, the Rays have created a spring training complex they hope will be a hit with fans and players alike. The media got its first look at the renovated Charlotte Sports Park on Thursday, with team officials highlighting the unique features of the facility.

Atop that list in the mind of Rays senior vice president Michael Kalt, who has spearheaded the project for the past three years, is the boardwalk that runs the length of the outfield, allowing 360-degree circulation around the ballpark. Fans will be able to walk the length of the outfield during games, standing just above the fence to take in the action on the field and in both bullpens – which are just about within touching distance.

"That's an idea that came from many visits to Clearwater and the Phillies' spring training ballpark, which is obviously a fantastic facility," Kalt said.

The boardwalk includes a Tiki bar, a barbecue area and other concessions and will feature high-top tables and chairs. Some of those seats will be available first-come, first-served to fans and others will be reserved for groups. Either way, the boardwalk and a wide concourse running through the main grandstand will allow fans holding any kind of ticket to walk around the entire ballpark with the game in view at all times.

A grass berm in the left-field corner (an idea borrowed from the ballpark at Disney's Wide World of Sports) and another berm near a children's play area down the right-field line will provide seating for about 1,000. The Rays announced Thursday that the 5,100 fixed seats – all of which have backs, as there are no bleachers anywhere in the park – have sold out for the entire Grapefruit League schedule. The total capacity should be around 6,800 when the berms and suites are included.

"We were really trying to incorporate some of the best things we saw at other facilities and add our own little personal touches to it," said Kalt.

That was true in the behind-the-scenes areas as well.

Once they get past the inconvenience of not being able to stay in their own homes, condos and apartments in the Tampa Bay area during spring training, the players shouldn't have any trouble appreciating their new digs.

A newly constructed, two-story, 43,000-square-foot office and clubhouse building beyond the right-field fence has far more luxurious accommodations for the team. Its centerpiece is a 4,000-square-foot locker area with custom-made wooden lockers that were designed by Rays clubhouse and equipment manager Chris Westmoreland. There are 60 permanent lockers around the perimeter of the room and 12 lockers in the middle that can be removed after cuts are made.

A spacious lounge and eating area should give the players someplace to spend their free time when they're not in one of the three rehab pools in the training room or the 4,000-square-foot weight room.

The weight room is in the middle of the facility and is the one feature that will be shared by the major-league and minor-league players. According to Kalt, the Rays' baseball operations staff specifically requested that the minor-league quarters be more Spartan – their lockers are crammed in tighter and are standard-issue metal – as a sort of motivational tool for the younger players.

Still, the facility can house 160 players on the minor-league side and they'll all be under one roof – a huge improvement from the previous setup in St. Petersburg, where the minor leaguers had to wait until the big-league team moved from the Naimoli Complex to Progress Energy Park before they had space to call their own.

Out the back door of the clubhouse building are 5 1/2 practice fields, which will allow everyone to get in as much work as they need simultaneously. Those fields were left in place by the previous tenant, the Texas Rangers, who trained on the site from 1987-2002, and have been reconditioned by the Rays. The locker room that used to belong to the Rangers, which sits down the right-field line, will now be used as the dressing area for the visiting team.

Thanks to some fresh paint, the new and the old blend together well, and the Rays are proud of how the facility has come together.

"People don't realize – this team never had the ability to build anything for itself," said Kalt. "We came in and we kind of retrofitted Tropicana Field to what we needed. We used some other team's spring training facility both on the stadium side and on the complex side. This facility is really the first time we've had a chance to actually construct something ground-up, design something from the ground up with the needs of the team in mind and how we would do it if we had a chance to start from scratch."

Reporter Marc Lancaster can be reached at (813) 259-7227.

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