Dunedin Stadium (Florida)

Last updated
Dunedin Stadium
Knology Park.jpg
Former namesDunedin Stadium at Grant Field
Knology Park (2004–2008)
Florida Auto Exchange Stadium (2010–2017)
Location373 Douglas Avenue #A
Dunedin, FL 34698
Coordinates 28°0′13″N82°47′11″W / 28.00361°N 82.78639°W / 28.00361; -82.78639 Coordinates: 28°0′13″N82°47′11″W / 28.00361°N 82.78639°W / 28.00361; -82.78639
OwnerCity of Dunedin Parks & Recreation Department
OperatorCity of Dunedin Parks & Recreation Department
Capacity 5,509 (2005–present)
6,106 (1999–2004)
6,218 (1990–1998)
3,417 (1977–1989)
Field sizeLeft Field – 333 ft
Left-Center – 380 ft
Center Field – 400 ft
Right-Center – 363 ft
Right Field – 336 ft
SurfaceGrass
Construction
Broke groundSeptember 1, 1989 [1]
OpenedMarch 1, 1990
Construction cost$2.4 million
($4.6 million in 2018 dollars [2] )
ArchitectJohnston Dana Associates
General contractorCase Contracting Company [3]
Tenants
Toronto Blue Jays (Spring training) (1990–present)
Dunedin Blue Jays (FSL) (1990–present)
Dunedin High School baseball

Dunedin Stadium (originally Dunedin Stadium at Grant Field) is a baseball field located in Dunedin, Florida. The stadium was built in 1990 and holds 5,509 people. It is the spring training home of the Toronto Blue Jays, as well as home to the Dunedin Blue Jays of the Class A Florida State League and the Dunedin High School Falcons baseball team. The stadium has also been known as Knology Park (2004–2008) and Florida Auto Exchange Stadium (2010–2017).

Baseball team sport

Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two opposing teams who take turns batting and fielding. The game proceeds when a player on the fielding team, called the pitcher, throws a ball which a player on the batting team tries to hit with a bat. The objective of the offensive team is to hit the ball into the field of play, allowing it to run the bases—having its runners advance counter-clockwise around four bases to score what are called "runs". The objective of the defensive team is to prevent batters from becoming runners, and to prevent runners' advance around the bases. A run is scored when a runner legally advances around the bases in order and touches home plate. The team that scores the most runs by the end of the game is the winner.

Dunedin, Florida City in Florida, United States

Dunedin is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. The name comes from Dùn Èideann, the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Dunedin is the 5th largest city in Pinellas County. The population was 35,321 at the 2010 census.

Toronto Blue Jays Baseball team and Major League Baseball franchise in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto, Ontario. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. The team plays its home games at the Rogers Centre.

Contents

History

From 1977 to 1989, the Blue Jays played at Grant Field, which had a seating capacity of 3,417. Grant Field opened in 1930 and was named after the mayor of Dunedin Albert J. Grant (served 1927-1928), who had donated the land. The first Toronto Blue Jays game ever was played there on March 11, 1977 when the Blue Jays beat the New York Mets 3–1.

In 1990, at a cost of approximately $2.4 million, the City of Dunedin built a new stadium called Dunedin Stadium at the same location as Grant Field. It had a capacity of 6,106. The actual playing field and team clubhouses did not change.

In the fall of 2000, the Toronto Blue Jays signed an agreement to remain in Dunedin for an additional 15 years pending a $12-million renovation. The state of Florida paid $6 million, Pinellas County $3 million, and the Jays and Dunedin paid the remainder for the renovations. The agreement took effect in March 2002. Part of the renovations have included a new two-story building that includes a clubhouse, training room, weight room, and office space that was built next to the stadium. The most recent renovations at Dunedin Stadium include remodeled restrooms and replacement of the grandstand seats.

In February 1995, during the Major League Baseball strike, the Blue Jays considered holding regular season games at Dunedin Stadium if the regular season began with replacement players. Ontario law forbade the Blue Jays from using replacement players in Toronto. American League officials inspected the ballpark on February 21, 1995 in response to the club's request to host games in Dunedin. [4] The strike ended in March 1995 and no regular season games were played at the park.

The 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike was the eighth work stoppage in baseball history, as well as the fourth in-season work stoppage in 22 years. The strike began on August 12, 1994, and resulted in the remainder of that season being cancelled, including the postseason and, for the first time since 1904, the World Series. The strike was suspended on April 2, 1995, after 232 days, making it the longest such stoppage in MLB history and the longest work stoppage in major league professional sports at the time ; its length would be surpassed by the 2004–05 NHL lockout, which ran for 310 days and caused the cancellation of that league's entire 2004–05 season. 948 games were cancelled in all, and MLB became the first major professional sports league to lose an entire postseason due to labor struggles. Due to the strike, both the 1994 and 1995 seasons were not played to a complete 162 games; the strike was called after most teams had played at least 113 games in 1994. Each team played 144 games in 1995.

Rogers Centre Multi-purpose stadium in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; home venue of the Toronto Blue Jays

Rogers Centre, originally named SkyDome, is a multi-purpose stadium in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated just southwest of the CN Tower near the northern shore of Lake Ontario. Opened in 1989 on the former Railway Lands, it is home to the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball (MLB). Previously, the stadium was home to the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL) played an annual game at the stadium as part of the Bills Toronto Series from 2008 to 2013. While it is primarily a sports venue, it also hosts other large events such as conventions, trade fairs, concerts, travelling carnivals, and monster truck shows.

American League Baseball league, part of Major League Baseball

The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league based in the Great Lakes states, which eventually aspired to major league status. It is sometimes called the Junior Circuit because it claimed Major League status for the 1901 season, 25 years after the formation of the National League.

Dunedin Stadium was once ranked by Sports Illustrated as one of the top five facilities to watch a Major League Baseball Spring training game[ citation needed ]. Dunedin has been the only spring home for the Toronto Blue Jays since their inception in 1977.

<i>Sports Illustrated</i> American sports magazine

Sports Illustrated (SI) is an American sports magazine owned by Authentic Brands Group. First published in August 1954, it has over 3 million subscribers and is read by 23 million people each week, including over 18 million men.

Major League Baseball Professional baseball league

Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. A total of 30 teams play in the National League (NL) and American League (AL), with 15 teams in each league. The NL and AL were formed as separate legal entities in 1876 and 1901, respectively. After cooperating but remaining legally separate entities beginning in 1903, the leagues merged into a single organization led by the Commissioner of Baseball in 2000. The organization also oversees Minor League Baseball, which comprises 256 teams affiliated with the major league clubs. With the World Baseball Softball Confederation, MLB manages the international World Baseball Classic tournament.

Spring training training during the spring season, in baseball

In Major League Baseball (MLB), spring training is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for roster and position spots, and gives established players practice time prior to competitive play. Spring training has always attracted fan attention, drawing crowds who travel to the warm climates of Arizona and Florida to enjoy the weather and watch their favorite teams play, and spring training usually coincides with spring break for many US college students.

The current park capacity is 5,509 individual seats and features include a press box level with air-conditioned skyboxes, three picnic areas, two air-conditioned rooms, a scoreboard with electronic message display, regulation-sized Major League playing field and lighting, two half-fields (one natural grass and one artificial turf), batting tunnels, and full concession capabilities. In addition, the administrative offices feature an executive boardroom, dining room and kitchen, classroom, clubhouse and workout and training facilities.

Renovation

The Blue Jays lease of the facility ran through 2017; however, they held the option to extend it by an additional five years twice. After investigating possible alternative sites to host their spring training facility, [5] the team negotiated a $81 million renovation to the stadium ($33.3 million) and Englebert Complex ($47.8 million) in 2014 under which they would contribute $20 million (plus any cost overruns) with the rest coming from the state ($13.7 million), county ($41.7 million) and city ($5.6 million) governments. [6] [7] [8] The club retains all revenue from sales at concessions and parking at the stadium, while they share revenue from naming rights with the city. [6] The new lease agreement for the stadium lasts for 25 years, with the option to renew for a further 2 years five times. [6] [9] The City Commission approved the deal in November 2017, [10] while the county agreed to approve a funding request for the project in April 2018. Bt September 2019 the budget for the renovation had increased to $102 million, with the team investing an extra $20 million and the city contributing $530,000. [11]

The Bobby Mattick Training Center at Englebert Complex is a sports facility owned by the City of Dunedin, Florida. It is used primarily by the Toronto Blue Jays as a practice facility, and is home to their Rookie league affiliate, the Gulf Coast League Blue Jays.

Groundbreaking took place in April 2019, with the project scheduled to be completed in time for the Jays' 2020 spring training. [12] [13] The stadium's capacity will be expanded from 5,500 to 8,500, with 6,500 fixed seats. [14]

Naming rights

Beginning in 2004 the stadium was known as Knology Park as part of a naming agreement with Knology, a southeastern United States communications and entertainment company. This agreement expired on September 30, 2008. [15]

On November 7, 2010, the City of Dunedin announced that it had reached a 7-year, $181,000 agreement with the Florida Auto Exchange, a Dunedin car sales center, for the naming rights of Dunedin Stadium. The facility was renamed "Florida Auto Exchange Stadium" until October 1, 2017 when the agreement expired. [16] [17]

Related Research Articles

The Dunedin Blue Jays are a minor league baseball team based in Dunedin, Florida. They play in the Florida State League, and are the Class A-Advanced affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball club. They play their home games at Dunedin Stadium, which opened in 1990 and seats 5,509 fans. For the 2019 season, the team played at Jack Russell Memorial Stadium while Dunedin Stadium underwent renovations.

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Dunedin Stadium may refer to:

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References

  1. ↑ "Groundbreaking Set for Stadium". St. Petersburg Times . August 26, 1989. Retrieved March 3, 2012.
  2. ↑ Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–" . Retrieved January 2, 2019.
  3. ↑ "Dunedin Stadium at Grant Field" (PDF). Case Contracting Company. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 6, 2014. Retrieved September 28, 2011.
  4. ↑ Walker, Ben (February 21, 1995). "Dunedin Home to Majors?". Ocala Star-Banner . p. 1C. Retrieved March 5, 2014.
  5. ↑ Griffin, Richard (2014-01-25). "Blue Jays likely to keep Dunedin as spring training home". Toronto Star . Retrieved 2014-08-04.
  6. 1 2 3 Davidi, Shi (2017-11-06). "Details emerge from Blue Jays' new spring training agreement in Dunedin". Sportsnet . Retrieved 2017-11-06.
  7. ↑ "Clock is ticking for Dunedin to sign deal with Toronto Blue Jays". 2017-09-27. Retrieved 2017-09-29.
  8. ↑ Davidi, Shi (2017-02-21). "Plans for spring facility, Rogers Centre renovations in progress". Sportsnet . Retrieved 2017-02-25.
  9. ↑ "CITY OF DUNEDIN AND TORONTO BLUE JAYS LICENSE AGREEMENT". City of Dunedin. 2017-11-02. Retrieved 2017-11-04.
  10. ↑ "Blue Jays New License Agreement". City of Dunedin. 2017-11-03. Retrieved 2017-11-04.
  11. ↑ Stockfisch, Jerry (2019-10-08). "Dunedin's Blue Jays stadium $100 million makeover takes shape". Tampa Bay Times . Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  12. ↑ SCHANTZ, MARK (2019-04-26). "Dunedin, Blue Jays break ground on $81 million stadium, training complex project". Times Publishing Company . Retrieved 2019-04-27.
  13. ↑ "Blue Jays hope new training facility leads to competitive advantagedate=2018-12-19". Sportsnet . Retrieved 2019-01-12.
  14. ↑ "AGREEMENT FOR THE CONSTRUCTION AND RENOVATION OF THE DUNEDIN SPRING TRAINING FACILITIES". City of Dunedin. 2017-11-02. Retrieved 2017-11-04.
  15. ↑ "Knology Park Reverts to Old Name, Dunedin Stadium". St. Petersburg Times . November 4, 2008. Retrieved March 5, 2014.
  16. ↑ Harwell, Drew (November 6, 2010). "It's no 1-800-ASK-GARY". St. Petersburg Times . Retrieved March 5, 2014.
  17. ↑ Naming rights agreement between the City of Dunedin and Florida Auto Exchange
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