If you haven’t noticed already, you will soon, as the Valley fills with baseball fans from around the country to soak up some sun while getting an up-close view of their favorite teams and players. The Phoenix area is now the spring home to half of all major league teams while generating hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue for the region.
The Giants first appeared in 1947 when the big league club was still in New York. Segregation played a big role in teams heading West. That same year, the Cleveland Indians, now known as the Guardians, relocated to Tucson to avoid Florida’s severe Jim Crow laws in order to integrate the American League’s first Black player, Larry Doby.
In 1952, the Chicago Cubs made their first appearance in Mesa and by the 1960s, Arizona’s Cactus League had half a dozen teams. As late as 1989, the state had just eight teams, but in the years since, seven more would leave Florida’s Grapefruit League for better accommodations in the desert.
Nowaways, exactly half of Major League Baseball is here each spring with 15 teams and 10 stadiums dotting the Valley.
D-backs manager Torey Lovullo remembers when Arizona wasn’t the main attraction.
“I know when I was a player, this was the other state. Every team seemed to be in Florida," Lovullo said.
But now he says the area is not only home to more spring games, but also more year-round residents.
“The evolution of spring training has also changed from the players’ standpoint because a lot of the players live here in Arizona in the off-season, so they get an extra month at home,” Lovullo said.
Craig Counsell won a World Series as a player here with the Diamondbacks in 2001.
He is now manager of the Chicago Cubs, longtime residents of Mesa.
“It’s the greatest place to be in the month of March. You know, you get an intimate ballpark, you can see multiple games a day, you get great weather, you can sit on a grass berm and watch major league players-I mean you could do it right and see seven ballparks in four days if you want,” Counsell said.
But that wouldn’t be cheap. Tickets now can average more than $50 each depending on location and opponent. But Counsell says the games haven’t lost their intimacy.
“For the most part it hasn’t lost that feel of like, it’s spring training. There’s a casualness to it that I think makes the players happier, you know what I mean, if that makes sense, like it makes the players a little friendly since it’s not the competition. It allows fans to get closer to players and that’s great. And that hasn’t gone anywhere,” Counsell said.
Few people have been to more spring training games than Reds manager Terry Francona, who began tagging along with his dad in the 1960s.
“I remember watching my dad, like a week before camp, he’d be running out the back row (of the bleachers) with a big sweat suit on trying to sweat out 10 pounds or whatever. I don’t ever remember seeing him swing a bat or take BP (batting practice) somewhere. You know, when they went to spring training, they played themselves into shape," Francona said.
Francona’s dad was longtime major leaguer Tito Francona. Terry went on to star at the University of Arizona and played 10 seasons of his own in the bigs. He’s now one of the most successful managers in baseball, having won over 2,000 games and two World Series with the Red Sox.
He says the game hasn’t changed, but the players’ approach to it has.
“That is really different now. I mean, guys come in to camp in shape, they work, they’re more athletic. They get after it pretty good," he said.
Francona says it’s easier for players to stay in shape since Cactus League travel is limited to the Valley after all remaining teams left Tucson in 2010. It’s a stark contrast from the Grapefruit League, where teams are spread out all over Florida.
“The travel is so easy, because you know you take BP (batting practice) at your own place, then get in the car, or get on the bus and go 20 minutes and play a game–it’s way easier," Francona said.
It’s also easy money and a big boost to the local economy.
A study by ASU’s WP Carey School of Business showed the 2025 Cactus League season generated an estimated 764 million dollars in economic impact for the state, with about half of that coming from outside visitors.
It also generated more than $32 million in state taxes and is responsible for more than 6,000 annual jobs in Arizona.
