Baseball fans will be interested in seeing Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout play on the Tempe Diablo Stadium diamond beginning Sunday while casual observers will relish the food and take in the tanning scene on the emerald grass beyond the outfield wall.

Spring training is back in full swing this year, and that’s good news for everyone from kids looking for autographs to restaurants and hotels welcoming customers.

“Spring training brings people from across the country – and even world – right here to Tempe to enjoy America’s favorite pastime. Visitors get to enjoy our unique restaurants, bars and shops, and those owners see a boost in revenue,” Tempe Mayor Corey Woods said.

“We’re proud to be the Angels’ spring training home for more than 30 years,” he said, adding that Diablo Stadium provides a welcoming environment “whether you’re an Angels fan, a fan of another team or just a Tempean wanting to catch a game in your backyard.”

About 80,000 to 100,000 attend games in Tempe during a spring season not shortened by a pandemic or labor strife, according to city officials.

Statewide, “it’s a Super Bowl-sized event except it happens every year,” Josh Coddington, a spokesman for the Arizona Office of Tourism, said.

In 2018, the last full season of spring training before the pandemic and the lockout, spring training brought in $644.2 million in economic impact for the state, according to the Cactus League.

The Cactus League drew 1.9 million people in 2017 and routinely pulls in more than 1.7 million people annually.

That’s good enough to create 6,439 annual jobs paying $224.6 million in 2018, according to the league.

Or put another way, spring training generated $31.9 million in taxes — $24.2 million in state taxes and $7.7 million for local governments, according to the league.

The most recent numbers available are from 2020, a pandemic year, when spring training brought in $363.6 million dollars to the state.

“Spring training is the anchor for our spring season and, because it has been a part of our ongoing history for so long, it is hard to imagine what our destination would look like without Cactus League,” Michael Martin, CEO of the Tempe Tourism Office, said.

“We do have requests from groups that would like to bring their groups and events to Tempe during March. But because our hotels are so full due to  Cactus League, it is difficult to add new events to our calendar.” 

The Angels will be at Tempe Diablo Stadium, 2200 W. Alameda Drive, at least through 2035, according to the city, and there are options to extend the agreement through 2045.

Among some of the details of the agreement between the team and city is that the Angels pay an annual rent of $500,000 to Tempe, and the city also receives a portion of the ticket proceeds and share of digital display advertising revenue, officials said.

The city provides the maintenance and operating expenses involved with running the facility year-round.

“These operating costs total about $1.1 million per year. In addition to spring training, the facility is used year-round by the Angels, and also by other groups for recreational baseball, community events, charity walk/runs and seasonal events like World of Illumination,” city officials said in a release.

The Angels open their home season Sunday, Feb. 26, against the Chicago White Sox.

But the effect of spring training for the city goes beyond home games, Martin said.

“I think the thing that makes spring training so impactful is that is fills the calendar for a full month, and we are impacted by all the teams. For example, even though the Angels normally have 15 home games at Tempe Diablo, the surrounding stadiums have games on days that the Angels do not have a game,” Martin said.

“Tempe is still positively impacted by games outside of Tempe because people can choose to stay in Tempe and visit various stadiums throughout the Valley. 

"Therefore, it becomes a full month of demand for our hotels, not just a weekend or specific dates.” 

We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.