Baseball City Stadium was a
stadium
A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...
located in
Davenport, Florida
Davenport is a city in Polk County, Florida, United States. The population was 9,040 at the 2020 census. While the city of Davenport itself is very small, the area north of the city close to Interstate 4 and US 27 is experiencing explosive growth ...
(near Haines City) that was in use from 1988 to 2002. It was a portion of the
Boardwalk and Baseball
Boardwalk and Baseball was a theme park built near Haines City, Florida, at the south-east corner of the Interstate 4-US 27 interchange. It replaced Circus World at the same location, and was owned by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Park Group (now Har ...
theme park. The two facilities adjoined at the intersection of Interstate 4 and Route 27, about southwest of
Orlando
Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures rele ...
. The facility had five practice fields in addition to the stadium. It was primarily used for
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
and was the
spring training
Spring training is the preseason in Major League Baseball (MLB), a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for Schedule (workplace), roster and position spo ...
home of
Kansas City Royals
The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expans ...
prior to the team moving to
Surprise Stadium
Surprise Stadium is a baseball venue located at the Surprise Recreation Campus athletic facility in Surprise, Arizona, United States. The stadium opened in 2002 and seats 10,714 people. It is the spring training facility for the Kansas City ...
in 2003. The ballpark had a capacity of 8,000 people.
History
The stadium was designed to be the cornerstone of the Boardwalk and Baseball theme park and opened on February 7, 1988. The Royals signed a 15-year contract, moved their spring training ballpark from Terry Park in Fort Myers, and relocated their Single A
Florida State League
The Florida State League (FSL) is a Minor League Baseball league based in the state of Florida. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 until its demotion to Single-A following ...
affiliate, renamed The
Baseball City Royals
The Baseball City Royals were a farm team for the Kansas City Royals from 1988 to 1992, after moving from Fort Myers, Florida, where they were known as the Fort Myers Royals.
The Baseball City Royals (based in Davenport, FL) were members of t ...
into the park for the 1988 season.
The stadium's first event was the 1988 Pizza Hut All-Star Softball game, played in front of 4,700 fans. The Royals played their first spring training game at the ballpark on March 4, 1988, in front of 3,281 who saw them lose 9-7 to the
Houston Astros
The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston, Texas. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division, having moved to the division in 2013 after ...
.
The Boardwalk and Baseball theme park rapidly proved itself a financial disaster. The owners and developers of the park, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (now Harcourt, a division of
Reed Elsevier
RELX plc (pronounced "Rel-ex") is a British multinational information and analytics company headquartered in London, England. Its businesses provide scientific, technical and medical information and analytics; legal information and analytics; ...
), put little money into the park, and almost all money went into the baseball stadium. The property had originally been a failed amusement park called
Circus World, and HBJ had simply renovated and re-opened the park, without adding new rides, hoping that the renaming along with the stadium would allow it to compete with nearby
Walt Disney World
The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, th ...
. The park cut costs, including closing at dusk, and laying off several employees. In September 1989 HBJ sold the theme park and stadium to
Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC is an American brewing company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 2008, it has been wholly owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (AB InBev), now the world's largest brewing company, which owns multiple glo ...
, then operator of the
Busch Gardens
Busch Gardens is the name of two amusement parks in the United States, owned and operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment. The original park is in Tampa, Florida, and the second park is in Williamsburg, Virginia. There were also previously B ...
parks. In 1990 Anheuser-Busch closed the theme park, and by 1993 almost the entire amusement park had been torn down. Following the 1992 season, Kansas City moved their high class-A affiliate to the Wilmington Blue Rocks. The Baseball City FSL franchise was then shifted to Daytona Beach, where it became the Daytona Cubs.
Kansas City would continue to use the baseball stadium as it was a contemporary spring training facility and drew solid attendance numbers. Anheuser-Busch kept the stadium open rather than break the contract with the Royals. In 2001 the Royals moved their Rookie League team, the
Gulf Coast League Royals
The Gulf Coast League (GCL) Royals were a minor league baseball franchise in the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League from 1971–1978, 1982–1983 and 1985–2002. The club was owned and operated by the Kansas City Royals of Major League Baseball. Th ...
into the stadium. When the contract expired at the end of the 2002 season, the Royals moved all of their spring training and rookie league operations to
Surprise, Arizona
Surprise is a city in Maricopa County, in the U.S. state of Arizona. The population was 143,148 at the 2020 census, up from 117,517 in 2010 and just 30,848 in 2000.
The city has a Aquatics Center and Maricopa County's northwest regional libra ...
, where a brand new $20 million park was being built and offered to any team willing to leave
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
. Soon after the Royals' departure, the stadium and the
IMAX Theater
IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating.
Graeme F ...
, which were the only remaining parts of the original theme park, were demolished.
Present day
After sitting idle for over a decade, the land was sold to developer Victor Posner in 2001. The ballpark was torn down in 2005 to make way for the new
Posner Park Posner Park is a $500 million mixed-use development in Polk County, Florida, at the junction of Interstate 4 and US 27 north of Haines City.
History
The development is the brainchild of Victor Posner (1918-2002), for whom it is named. Posner ...
; a retail complex with several big box stores opened on the site in 2008.
References
External links
Baseball Pilgrimages: Baseball City Stadium
{{FSL ballparks
Defunct minor league baseball venues
Defunct baseball venues in the United States
Grapefruit League venues
Kansas City Royals spring training venues
1988 establishments in Florida
Sports venues completed in 1988
2005 disestablishments in Florida
Sports venues demolished in 2005
Demolished sports venues in Florida