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Baseball isn't the only sport that holds its spring training in Florida, which annually receives a tourism boost when the boys of summer are roused from their winter slumber and head south.
Visit St./Pete Clearwater is banking on an influx of fans of the world's most popular sport — soccer — thanks to the presence of several Major League Soccer clubs in the area over the next few weeks.
Two MLS squads, D.C. United and Philadelphia Union, hold their preseason training in Clearwater, and this year they're being joined by a third club, the New York Red Bulls. The Bulls will train at the Oldsmar Sports Complex from Jan. 22 to Feb. 3 and then head to Tucson, Ariz., to complete the remainder of the preseason schedule.
Visit St./Pete Clearwater officials say New York is its top domestic market, and No. 2 overall, for visitors to Pinellas County, and it plans to build on that flow of tourism by sponsoring the Red Bulls. The agency is running ads on the team's official website, and when regular season play kicks off in early March, it will sponsor a fireworks night and the match time temperature announcement — presumably as an appeal to fans fed up with the long, cold northeast winter.
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