The Player Development Complex is where the Red Sox trained and practiced before the exhibition season began at City of Palms. It also housed all the Minor League Baseball affiliates and coaches the entire month of March, and it is where players were reassigned as they trimmed the roster down during spring training. Once spring training ended, extended spring training ran from April through the beginning of the Gulf Coast League season. Instructional league took place there from September to October.
This complex includes five baseball fields with bullpens and eight batting tunnels. The clubhouse includes a meeting room, conference room, kitchen, six offices, a players locker room with showers, a trainer/therapy room, a hydrotherapy room, laundry room, an umpire locker room, coaches locker room, and an expanded weight training room that was added in 2004–05.
Red Sox departure
The Red Sox had a lease with Fort Myers for City of Palms Park through 2019, however, team ownership had been considering exercising an early exit in their contract, allowing them to leave following 2009 spring training. On October 28, 2008, the Lee County commission voted 3–1 to approve an agreement with the Boston Red Sox to build a new spring training facility for the team in south Lee County. That new facility became known as "JetBlue Park",[1] and in February 2012, the Boston Red Sox moved their spring training operations into the newly constructed JetBlue Park at Fenway South located on County Road 876 (Daniels Parkway) in Fort Myers.
Post-Red Sox usage
Lee County has owned the stadium since 2003, when the City of Fort Myers transferred ownership due to the cost of upkeep.[2] Since 2014, the stadium has been used by the baseball team of Florida SouthWestern State College, and it is also used for some amateur baseball games.[2] The City of Fort Myers occasionally uses the venue for concerts.[citation needed]
The cost to maintain the ballpark each year is $500,000, yet the facility only creates $32,000 in revenue annually.[2] In the fall of 2019, Lee County officials received a request from the City of Fort Myers to demolish the stadium, so the land could be given back to the city for use in a redevelopment project.[2]