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LECOM Park Wins "Best of the Ballparks"

Ballpark Digest Competition Included All 29 High-A Parks
June 20, 2018

Bradenton, Fla. - LECOM Park has once again claimed the championship in Ballpark Digest's "Best of the Ballparks" competition. The historic Bradenton ballpark secured the title in a razor thin final round fan vote. LECOM Park bested Winston-Salem's BB&T Field by a mere 28 votes. Ballpark Digest has previously recognized

Bradenton, Fla. - LECOM Park has once again claimed the championship in Ballpark Digest's "Best of the Ballparks" competition. The historic Bradenton ballpark secured the title in a razor thin final round fan vote. LECOM Park bested Winston-Salem's BB&T Field by a mere 28 votes.
Ballpark Digest has previously recognized The Friendly City's ballfield as "Best of the Ballparks" in the Grapefruit League. LECOM Park has held the top spot among Florida Spring Training destinations since 2016. The Pittsburgh Pirates celebrated their 50th Spring Training at LECOM Park in 2018.
"It's an honor for our home field to be selected as the top ballpark in the High-A classification," Bradenton Marauders General Manager Rachelle Madrigal said. "The love our fans have for LECOM Park and the high regard baseball fans everywhere have expressed for this historic facility was evident in the voting."
LECOM Park advanced through a bracket featuring all 29 ballparks that host High-A teams. More than 31,000 fans voted in the competition. Bradenton emerged victorious in a head-to-head semifinal matchup against Florida State League rival and 2017 "Best of the Ballparks" champion Lakeland and the recently remodeled Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium.
"We've never seen a final vote this close at any level of play, and while we always tell fans their votes do count, a margin of only 28 votes proves that point," said Ballpark Digest Publisher Kevin Reichard. "We had two great ballparks in the final round, so such an even split should not have been surprising. But it's hard to argue that LECOM Park isn't one of the great ballparks of baseball."
Erected in 1923, LECOM Park has undergone a number of significant renovations over the last three decades to provide fans modern amenities while maintaining the feeling of a classic ballpark. The iconic Spanish mission style façade was constructed during a significant facelift of the stadium in the early 1990s. Lights came about in 2008. The Pirates, the City of Bradenton, and Manatee County partnered on a $10 million renovation of fan areas in 2013, including the addition of a boardwalk around the outfield and a tiki bar. The fan friendly upgrades were dubbed as the "Best Ballpark Renovation (over $1 million)" by Ballpark Digest in 2013.
Recent upgrades to the Marauders' home field include a state-of-the-art home clubhouse in 2015 and the addition of a high definition video board in 2017. The Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, which has a campus located in Lakewood Ranch, acquired naming rights to the ballpark
prior to the 2017 season.    
The LECOM Park box office hours are Tuesday-Friday non-gamedays from 11:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. On gamedays the box office will be open on weekdays from 11:00 a.m. until the end of the game and on Saturdays from 3:30 until the end of the game. The box office will open two hours prior to Sunday games and 10:30 a.m. games.
The Marauders kick off the second half of the Florida State League season on Thursday, June 21 at 6:30 p.m. Gates open at 5:30 p.m.
For more information about the Bradenton Marauders, please call 941-747-3031, visit www.BradentonMarauders.com, or email [email protected].