By Christopher Boan | Scottsdale Progress
A springtime rite of passage for baseball fans returns to the Valley next weekend, with the dawning of the 2020 Cactus League.
The 15-team league, which has its first game Friday, Feb. 21, and runs through the end of March, brings Major League Baseball competition to 10 fields in the region.
The games technically don’t count in the year-end standings, but make a huge impact on the state’s economy, according to ASU’s Daniel Marburger.
Marburger, a clinical professor in the W.P. Carey School of Business, said the league makes a unique impact unlike any other sporting event in the region.
“It’s a little bit different than trying to estimate the economic impact of, let’s say, the Super Bowl, which is people coming in from the outside to go to the game, they spend some money here for the weekend and then they go back, because with the Cactus League, you have people who are retirees, snowbirds, who have chosen Arizona, chosen Phoenix, because it’s where the Cubs play,” Marburger said.
