- March 28, 2024
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Turns out the Baltimore Orioles and the Boston Red Sox don't only compete in baseball.
The teams, each with new or renovated spring training facilities on the Gulf Coast, are also in a race to have the best meeting and event facility in the region. For the Red Sox, that's JetBlue Park at Fenway South in Fort Myers, a $78 million stadium built in 2011 that includes a replica of the famed Green Monster. The Orioles, meanwhile, play in Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota, which underwent a $31 million renovation in 2010.
The major league teams are only in town for six weeks, which leaves a lot of time left over. That's why top local executives for both teams, Katie Haas for the Red Sox and Laura Williams for the Orioles, are marketing each facility.
Haas, for instance, says JetBlue Park, with an adjacent 20 acres the team owns, will host anything from weddings and birthday parties to a farmer's market or a Christmas tree lot. “We are billing it from five to 5,000 people, we can host your event,” Haas tells Coffee Talk. “And we'll be very creative in how we can do that.”
Williams says her team will be imaginative, too. Ed Smith Stadium has already hosted weddings, parties, nonprofit events, and an even the occasional bar mitzvah party. Williams says her office receives an email or call almost every day from people who want to see the stadium or book an event.
“The goal is to market a vibrant center of year-round activity,” Williams says. “We are really encouraged by the pace of booking.”
The Red Sox recently squeezed out a victory when it won the rights to host the Florida High School Athletic Association baseball championships from 2013 to 2015. It was by a slight margin over Ed Smith, which hosted the tournament in 2008 and went for it again for 2013.
Both teams will continue to drive for more event business between now and February, and then again in April. Williams says “it's truly an awareness situation” to generate more interest in events at Ed Smith. Adds Haas, talking about JetBlue Park: “It's not a conference room. It's not a ballroom. We are truly selling the uniqueness of it.”