Plant Field
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| Former names | Pepin-Rood Stadium (1971–2002) |
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| Location | Tampa, Florida, United States |
| Owner |
Tampa Bay Hotel (1899–1900) City of Tampa (1900–1971) University of Tampa (1971–2002) |
| Surface | Grass |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 1899 |
| Demolished | 2002 |
| Tenants | |
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Spring Training Chicago Cubs (1913-16) Boston Red Sox (1919) Washington Senators (1920s) Detroit Tigers (1930s) Cincinnati Reds (1930-54) Chicago White Sox (1954) Minor leagues Tampa Smokers (1919–1930; 1946–1954) College Sports University of Tampa (1933-36) High school sports Hillsborough High School (1920s) Pro sports Tampa Cardinals (1926) |
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Plant Field was the first major athletic venue in Tampa, Florida. A large track and small grandstand was built in 1899 by Henry B. Plant, on the grounds of his Tampa Bay Hotel, as an area to provide various activities for his guests. Plant Field drew Tampa residents and visitors to see horse racing, car racing, baseball games, entertainers, and politicians.The stadium also hosted the first professional football and first spring training games in Tampa and was the long-time home of the Florida State Fair.
In the early 1970s, the field was acquired by the University of Tampa, which changed its name to Pepin-Rood Stadium and eventually replaced it with newer facilities.
Henry Plant built a horse track on the grounds east of North Boulevard and south of Cass Street, now the site of the University of Tampa athletic fields. During the 1898-99 tourist season, races were sponsored by the Tampa Agricultural Racing and Fair Association. When car races were added to the South Florida Fair, a race track debuted at the field on February 3, 1921. The track was a 1/2 mile dirt oval that operated until 1980. Plant Field was also a venue for dirt-track races sanctioned by the International Motor Contest Association until the mid-1970s
Baseball began at Plant Field around 1899 when local teams played at what was then called the Tampa Bay Race Track Diamond. With the lure of travel incentives offered by the city government, it became one of the first facilities used by Major League Baseball for spring training when the Chicago Cubs came to train before the 1913 season. The Cubs conducted spring training in Tampa until 1916. On March 26, 1914, Plant Field hosted the first major league baseball spring training game in the Tampa Bay area when the Cubs defeated the St. Louis Browns 3-2.
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