Minor League Baseball is Big Business in Florida

Despite the many unique aspects of each major league club’s operation, there is one that is common to all. Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is no minor operation. Each club has between 160-250 players training every day and teams have players at all levels (high-A, low-A, AA, and AAA) who attend spring training at the same time as their major league counterparts. Spring training, extended spring, Florida State League, and instructional leagues run from January to October.

All that baseball is means big business for transportation and hospitality industries. Jay Edmiston, Director of Florida Operations for the Houston Astros, estimated that the Astros spend more than $1.6M annually to operate their minor league system in Florida. In 2015 the team spent more than $400K and $900K on food and hotels respectively. Those costs can double during the 6-weeks that the major league players are in town, meaning teams will spend up to $3M on food, hotels, flights, and ground transportation for players alone.

With 15 teams in the state that’s an estimated $15M contribution to the Florida economy from the teams, all before a single hotel room is booked by fans. To say that spring training is an important part of the Florida economy would be an understatement and only time will tell whether or not the communities who are about to lose their team can survive without them.