By Skip Hall | Your Valley
A letter to the editor posted online Nov. 2 questioned the benefits of spring training to Surprise and its residents. I wanted to provide some insight to help answer that question.
Surprise Stadium was built in 2002, and the city recovered two-thirds of the original stadium cost through the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority. This allowed us to bring the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals to Surprise for their first spring training season in 2003.
All of the Major League Baseball teams that play in Arizona for spring training are part of the Cactus League. Each year, the Cactus League works with the Seidman Research Institute at Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business to determine the economic impact of spring training to the state. The institute’s latest study showed the 2023 Cactus League season generated $418.5 million for Arizona’s Gross Domestic Product and $710.2 million in total economic activity. Surprise gets a share of that economic impact.
