LECOM Park Has Plenty of Old-School Charm
LECOM Park
Image: Courtesy Photo
A Bradenton landmark for 97 years, LECOM Park is the oldest spring stadium in the Florida Grapefruit League. Among the teams that have called it home-away-from-home since 1923 are the St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox.
In 1969, the Pittsburgh Pirates came to town and named the park McKechnie Field in honor of Bradenton resident Bill McKechnie, who’d led the Pirates to the World Series in 1925. LECOM—Western Pennsylvania-based Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, which has a campus in Lakewood Ranch—bought the naming rights in 2017. (McKechnie was not to be forgotten; the Pirates then renamed their clubhouse the Bill McKechnie Home Clubhouse.)
Night play came to the stadium with the addition of lights in 2008, and in 2013 the park underwent a $10 million renovation that spruced up its beloved old-timey look and added a tiki bar, a video replay scoreboard and a boardwalk around the entire outfield—the better to enjoy Pirates spring training games and, from April through early September, Pittsburgh’s Advanced-A affiliate, the Bradenton Marauders.
USA Today ranks LECOM Park No. 3 out of the 13 Florida spring training parks.
The Pirate Parrot with young fans
Image: Courtesy Photo
No. of Seats
7,500 plus 1,500 standing room
2019 Attendance
90,585, an average of 6,039 per game
Estimated Economic Impact
Over $36 million
Summer Baseball League
The Bradenton Marauders
2019 Bradenton Marauders Attendance
71,253, an average of 1,131 per game
No. of Employees During Spring Training
More than 200
Year-Round Employees
50
Mascot
Pirate Parrot
