*** Welcome to piglix ***

JetBlue Park

JetBlue Park
JetBlue Park.PNG
Jet Blue Park at Fenway South from a Yankees vs. Red Sox spring training game
Full name JetBlue Park at Fenway South
Location 11581 Daniels Parkway
Fort Myers, Florida
Coordinates 26°32′53″N 81°45′48″W / 26.54806°N 81.76333°W / 26.54806; -81.76333Coordinates: 26°32′53″N 81°45′48″W / 26.54806°N 81.76333°W / 26.54806; -81.76333
Capacity 10,823
Field size Same as Fenway Park:
Left Field: 310 feet
Left-Center Field: 379 feet
Center Field: 420 feet
Right Field Bullpen: 380 feet
Right Field Pole: 302 feet
Surface Bermuda Grass (Celebration)
Construction
Broke ground March 4, 2011
Opened March 3, 2012 (2012-03-03)
Construction cost US$77.9 Million
Architect Populous
Structural engineer Bliss & Nyitray, Inc.
General contractor Manhattan Kraft Construction
Tenants
Boston Red Sox (2012–present)
GCL Red Sox (2012–present)

JetBlue Park at Fenway South (or informally JetBlue Park) is a baseball park in Fort Myers, Florida, part of the Fenway South training and development facility.

Opened in March 2012, it is primarily the spring training home of the Boston Red Sox, replacing earlier separated facilities at City of Palms Park and Boston's former (1993–2011) minor league complex, also located in downtown Fort Myers. The naming rights were purchased by JetBlue, an airline with major operations at Boston's Logan International Airport since 2004.

In 2008, the Red Sox began exploring the possibility of relocating their spring training facility. Their previous spring training facility, City of Palms Park, was lacking the modern amenities that other spring training ball parks had and was located two and half miles away from the team's minor league complex. Red Sox CEO Mike Dee visited Sarasota to talk with city officials about the possibility of the team moving there. Sarasota County commissioners then voted 4-0 to approve the purchase of land for a Red Sox spring training facility. Fearing the possibility of losing the Red Sox the Lee County Commission voted in October 2008 to agree to build a new ballpark for the Red Sox. The Red Sox also signed a 30-year lease with the city of Fort Myers. The following April it was announced that the new stadium would be located on a 126-acre lot north of Southwest Florida International Airport. When the Red Sox announced they would stay in Fort Myers they stated the new stadium would be similar to Fenway Park. The architecture team was led by local Fort Myers firm Parker/Mudgett/Smith Architects, Inc. and Populous and assisted by Boston firm Quirk. The groundbreaking was in August 2010 and construction commenced in February 2011.

The ballpark's field has exactly the same dimensions as Fenway Park and some of the unique features as the Boston ballpark as well. The most notable is a replica of the Green Monster in left field. However, unlike the one in Boston, the Green Monster in Fort Myers has seating within the wall. There are three rows of seats carved into the middle portion of the wall. Part of the reason for the netting separation in the wall was due to Hurricane building code. Separating the seats inside the wall from the field is a net so that balls cannot go inside the seated area. If a ball is hit off the net play is not interrupted, it is the same as if a ball is hit off the Green Monster at Fenway. Another unique feature about the Green Monster is that like one in Fenway Park it has a manual scoreboard. The scoreboard is an older one that had been used at one point in Fenway Park, but before being installed in Fort Myers was in a storage facility in South Dakota. The manual scoreboard is different from the one in Boston though because there is no room behind it where a scoreboard operator can put numbers while the game is going on. Instead, a scoreboard operator works in a room in between the scoreboard and the foul line and has to run out in between innings with a ladder and scoreboard tiles to change the scoreboard. Other features from the ballpark in Boston that are present in the spring training stadium are the triangle, Pesky's Pole, and Lone Red Seat that marks the longest home run hit in the Fenway's history.


...
Wikipedia

...