How will spring training's reduced crowds affect tourism as SWFL recovers from pandemic?

The winter ritual that’s captivated Southwest Florida for the past 30 years, and much longer before, begins anew Sunday.

The Boston Red Sox play the Minnesota Twins in the first Major League Baseball spring training game of the season in Fort Myers. It marks the 30-year anniversary of the Twins coming to town (the Red Sox came two years later), but spring training in Lee County dates back to 1925.

Baseball during a global pandemic might sound the same – the pop of a fastball into the catcher’s mitt, the crack of the bat, the call of the umpire. It might even smell the same – hot dogs and beer at Hammond Stadium and JetBlue Park.

However, the MLB’s month-long stay in town will look much different. The Red Sox and Twins are limiting fans to about a quarter of their stadiums’ capacities to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

While fewer locals will get to see games, fewer visitors could be coming to Southwest Florida this March as well. That could mean a huge chunk of the local economy goes missing during the busiest time of year.

Hotels and restaurants could feel a pinch. The county government could see less revenue from taxes.

Businesses that rely on tourism dollars are preparing to take a hit this spring. But just how hard they’ll get hit remains a question.

Fewer fans, fewer visitors?

On Feb. 2, the Red Sox announced they would allow 24-percent fan capacity for games at JetBlue Park. The following day, the Twins said they’d fill Hammond Stadium only to 28-percent capacity. That means about 2,400 fans will attend each game and the Twins announced Wednesday morning that all their games are sold out.

For the entirety of spring training this year, nearly a quarter-million fewer people will attend a game in Fort Myers than would if the Red Sox and Twins sold out every contest.

“Anytime you reduce (visitors) in any capacity, it’s going to have a negative impact on Southwest Florida,” said Jay Johnson, president of the Lee County chapter of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association and owner of Bubba’s Roadhouse in Cape Coral. “March is made up of spring-breakers, snowbirds and spring training. If you’re missing any part of that, it’s going to impact restaurants.”

Local restaurant and hotel owners are bracing for a hit nut, they’re happy there’s going to be spring training at all.

Before their announcement four weeks ago, MLB had not said anything publicly about when spring training would start, let alone if fans would be allowed to attend.

“If spring training is scaled back, we expect spending to be less,” said Lee County commissioner Brian Hamman, who also is chairman of the county’s Tourist Development Council (TDC). “However, we’re excited to have some level of spring training and visitors. Any new money will help our businesses.”

How many fewer visitors will come to Fort Myers this spring is a question no one can answer. But just because fans aren’t coming for baseball doesn’t mean they won’t come.

Fewer travelers coming for spring training could open hotel occupancy to travelers coming for other reasons. More people could be eager to travel after holding off on vacations during the pandemic. With many children doing virtual school, especially up north, families don’t have to plan their vacations around the school calendar – spring break for families could be more spread out this year.

“There’s going to be more availability to people who have not visited before,” said Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce executive director Colleen DePasquale, who also is a TDC member. “There are so many different facets that push people to come down here.”

How much does baseball bring in?

Spring training brings $69 million in spending to Lee County. That’s according to a report the county commissioned from Davidson Peterson and Associates in 2018, the most recent study of MLB’s economic impact on the area. That includes $56.7 million spent outside the two parks with $18.4 million spent on accommodations, $14.4 on food and beverage and $9.3 million on shopping.

Among visitors interviewed in the study, 41 percent said spring training was the only reason they came to Lee County. Of those interviewed, 85 percent said spring training was an important reason they came.

The report found that 940 jobs in Lee County were directly supported by spring training attendees.

Spring training brought in $2.5 million dollars in local government revenue in 2018. That total would be roughly two-tenths of a percent of the $1.367 billion in current revenue Lee County reported for the 2020-21 fiscal year.

People are coming

Passenger traffic at Southwest Florida International Airport was down 39.9 percent in December, but that represented a 60-percent recovery from all of RSW’s traffic loss in 2020, which was its worst year since 2004.

More:RSW shows signs of recovery after devastating year for travel

Some hoteliers have reported they’ve seen more guests the first two months of 2021. Especially hotels near the beach, which have seen booking rise – not quite to 2019, pre-pandemic levels, but more than expected.

“We’re starting to see an uptick in transient leisure travel for February, March and April,” said Brian Kramer, general manager of the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort and Spa in Estero and also a TDC member. “(Business) is definitely down, but if you’re a beach property, you’ve fared pretty well.”

Tony Lapi is vice chairman of the TDC and owner of ’Tween Waters Island Resort on Captiva. He said his hotel and others on the beach (even those closer to the baseball stadiums) don’t get many spring training visitors.

The Pink Shell Beach resort on Fort Myers Beach used to work with a company that created spring training ticket packages for its guests. Katja Kunz, the Fort Myers Beach hotel’s director of sales and marketing, said Pink Shell isn’t doing those packages this year.

Kunz said the future bookings were slow in the fall when many vacationers plan their spring break trips. However, sales picked up in January. People just waited longer to book this year due to the uncertainty of the pandemic.

“We forecast (business) would be down this spring,” Kunz said. “The last six weeks have shown that not to be the case. We’re ramped up hiring more staff.

“If spring training fans are not able to come, there are definitely other visitors that will make up for that.”

Selling Lee County

Inland hotels and businesses around JetBlue Park and Hammond Stadium could feel more of a crunch this season. 

Before the pandemic fans were allowed to attend workouts at the ballparks, and hundreds would be there each day watching players practice. This year fans are allowed only on game days.

“More fans equals more business for us,” said Michael Denunzio, owner of Fine Folk Pizza which is located less than 1,000 feet from the entrance to JetBlue. “We see an increase in pizza sales before and after the games.

“We understand we have a social responsibility to do what we can to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. If that means only 25-percent of fans get to enjoy baseball, that’s what we should do. I’m just happy and grateful they’re bringing some fans back.”

Although January was much slower than January 2020 at ’Tween Waters, Lapi said there are signs that visitors are coming back this winter and spring.

One of the reasons more tourists are coming is the advertising done by Lee County’s Visitor and Convention Bureau, a government entity overseen by the TDC.

Hamman said the TDC realizes people still aren’t traveling like did pre-pandemic, so the council isn’t doing a full-bore marketing push for Lee County. However, the TDC has done targeted ads looking to reach people who want to travel. That includes buying ads on travel websites and in travel publications.

Fewer tourists means less money for the Visitor and Convention Bureau, which is funded mostly by Lee County’s 5% hotel bed tax. However, Hamman said the VCB had a healthy rainy day fund built up before the pandemic in order to advertise should tourism fall. The VCB did similar marketing when the BP oil spill, Hurricane Irma and red tide algae threatened to keep visitors away.

Revenue from the bed tax in December, the last month with full numbers available, was $3.7 million – 6.9 percent less than December 2019, but more than the previous three Decembers.

While the Visitor and Convention Bureau loses money from the bed tax, that money can be spent only on three specific purposes – marketing (53.6 percent), beach and shoreline improvement (26.4 percent) and paying the mortgage on JetBlue Park and the Lee County Sports Complex which the county owns (20 percent).

“We expect (the spring) to be slower than normal,” Hamman said, “but we still expect travelers and visitors. I think we’ll have a much easier time (than other areas) digging out of the pandemic recession.”