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It is always perilous to write ahead of time about ever-changing situations. We typically write over the weekend for our blog posts which are scheduled during the week. The weekend-before-last, we wrote about how Spring Training was likely dead for the year and the impact that that would have on Scottsdale.
Well it didn’t take too long to be proven wrong; only a couple days, actually. Two days after that post dropped, it was announced that an agreement was made between Major League Baseball and the player’s union, and Spring Training is now returning to Arizona and Florida on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th.
Well I guess we’ve got a little egg on our face, but at least it’s for a positive reason.
So what is the impact? The first thing worth mentioning is that this Spring Training will be significantly truncated; Spring Training typically approaches two months, and this version will clock in at just under 3 weeks. Obviously, with fewer games, there are fewer ticket sales, fewer concessions, and a smaller positive economic impact as a result.
Additionally, as around 60% of Spring Training attendees are from out of state, for those who canceled their tickets in the face of the lockout, it is difficult to believe that they would then re-book their plans at the last minute just to catch an early April preseason game (when temperatures will likely be near or over 90 degrees) when their home area is in the midst of warming up and “the real thing” baseball-wise will be right around the corner. Unless one is desperate to get out of Des Moines or Minneapolis for a baseball vacation, that just doesn’t make much sense.
Obviously, some games are better than none. There are likely some out-of-towners who kept their vacation plans with the expectation of no baseball that will now have the ability to spend money at a game. There are locals who will do the same, and with night games sitting outside for 2.5 hours in the April sun is now avoidable for the melatonin-deficient amongst us. There will be some positive economic rebound, but it’s tough to see how it gets close to the normal injection of Iowa or Illinois money.
That said, baseball is back. After a brutal 2020 and a 2021 which wasn’t that much better, we all need a return to normalcy, and what’s more normal than the baseball season in full swing with the stands filled with fans and the Diamondbacks disappointing us? Another losing season or not, we’re here for it.