How Surprise Stadium became the Texas Rangers’ spring training home

Every spring, the Texas Rangers head out west to Arizona and prepare for the upcoming season in the Valley of the Sun. For over 20 years, they have shared a spring training home with the Kansas City Royals.

Located in the West Valley of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area, Surprise Stadium sits in the town of Surprise. While the city is mostly home to retirees, the Rangers and Royals benefit from 13 other MLB teams using Arizona as a training facility, which brings nearly 1.7 million people to Arizona every year.

Rangers spring training move from Florida to Arizona

The Rangers were not always in Arizona for the spring as prior to the franchise relocating to Texas, they called a couple of cities in Florida as their home base for spring.

From 1972 to 1986, they played in Pompano Beach and moved to Port Charlotte in 1986, where they stayed until the early 2000s.

In 2003, Texas officially moved to Arizona where they've called Surprise Stadium their spring home since then. With 10,700 fixed seats and a lawn area with a 3,000 capacity, Surprise Stadium sits on parts of 200 acres of the Surprise Recreational Campus.

Their move to Surprise was part of a joint agreement between the Rangers and Royals in the early 2000s. The complex came to be due to the passage of Proposition 302, which approved $45 million in funding, two-thirds of that from money coming the Prop 302 and one-third from the city.

On site, the Royals and Rangers features a combined eight Major League Baseball sized fields, two stretching and bunting fields, pitching galleries and batting cages. Inside the stadium, the fan experience increases in part to the Michelob Ultra Legends Deck down the first base line, a rooftop deck, lawn suites and six traditional private air conditioned suites.

After calling Florida the spring training home, Texas moved to Arizona's Cactus League when their lease in Port Charlotte expired following the 2001 season.

Founded in 1947, the Cactus League is the spring training home to 15 big league franchises, spread throughout 10 ballparks. Deciding to buck tradition of teams training in Florida, Indians owner Bill Veeck chose to move training to Tuscon, Arizona.

In 1989, the Cactus League had eight teams with the other 18 being located in Florida and the shifted starting to balance in the 2010s with both states now hosting half of the league each.