Boston Red Sox spring training home

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City of Palms Park.

Since 1993, the city of Fort Myers in Lee County, Florida, United States has been the Spring training home of the Boston Red Sox when the club moved from Winter Haven (now the spring-training home of the Cleveland Indians). Boston trains at the City of Palms Park since the ballpark opened, while the minor-league facility, featuring five full fields, is a short distance away. City of Palms Park is also used by the Gulf Coast League Red Sox.

The park, built in a classic Florida style, with a main covered grandstand and palm trees past the outfield fence, was designed by HOK Sport + Venue + Event, the same architect responsible for Coors Field, Minute Maid Park, and Dolphin Stadium, amongst others.

The Minnesota Twins play their spring training at Hammond Stadium, which is also located in Fort Myers. Each spring the two teams will play five of their preseason games against each other in a series known as the Mayor's Cup.

[edit] New spring facility to open in 2012

The Red Sox's spring training lease with Fort Myers ran through 2019, however, the Red Sox began toying with exercising an early out in their contract that allowed them to leave following the 2009 spring season. Chief operating officer Mike Dee met with Sarasota officials on April 25, 2008 to discuss the possibility of the Red Sox moving to Sarasota's Ed Smith Stadium once its current spring inhabitants, the Cincinnati Reds, move to their new spring home in Goodyear, Arizona.^[1]

On October 28, 2008, the Lee County commission voted 3-1 to approve an agreement with the Boston Red Sox to build a new spring-training facility for the team in south Lee County. Dee was present in the chambers for the vote, and took the agreement back to Boston to meet with team owner John Henry and other team officials.^[2] On November 1, 2008, the Red Sox signed an agreement with Lee County that will keep their spring training home in the Fort Myers area for 30 more years.^[3]

Wednesday, April 30, 2009, the Lee County commissioners selected the Watermen-Pinnacle site on Daniels Parkway (a little more than a mile east of Interstate 75) as the site for the new facility. The backup choice, if negotiations between county staff and the developer falter, is the University Highland site just north of Germain Arena in Estero. Jeff Mudgett, a Fort Myers architect who is volunteering his time toward the project, envisions a facility with a mini-Fenway Park that would open for Spring 2012.^[4]